THE    BASAL    BELIEFS    OF 
CHRISTIANITY 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPAN\ 

NKW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO 
ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON        BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE   MACMILLAN    CO.    OF   CANADA.   Ltd. 

TOKOHTO 


THE  JASAL  BELIEFS  ^' 
OF  CHRISTIANITY 


By 
James  H.  Snowden,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1911 

All  rights  restrvtd 


S'l^^f 


Copyright,  19x1, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  January,  1911. 


Nottoootr  ^rrsB : 
Berwick  &  Smith  Co.,  Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


PRESIDENT 

JOHN  A.  MARQUIS,    D.D.,   LL.D. 

SCHOLAR,    THINKER,     PREACHER,    EDUCATOR 

THIS  BOOK  IS  FRATERNALLY 

INSCRIBED 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/basalbeliefsofchOOsnowiala 


PREFACE 

Doctrine  is  the  necessary  foundation  on  which 
duty  and  deed  are  built,  or  the  root  out  of  which 
they  spring  as  flower  and  fruit.  As  a  man  thinketh 
in  his  heart,  so  is  he.  Every  rational  deed  issues 
from  a  thought,  thought  when  it  becomes  critical 
and  constructive  shapes  itself  into  a  doctrine,  and 
doctrine  builds  a  system  of  truth.  Thus  every  one 
is  a  psychologist  and  theologian  and  philosopher, 
whether  he  knows  it  or  not.  All  Christian  preach- 
ing and  practice  must  root  itself  in  doctrine  and 
cannot  be  clearer  and  stronger  than  the  doctrine 
out  of  which  it  grows.  Yet  "doctrinal  preaching" 
is  not  a  popular  program  and  is  supposed  to  be 
somewhat  repellent.  There  is  no  avoiding  it, 
however ;  the  very  denial  of  doctrine  is  itself  a  doc- 
trine, and  the  rankest  sensationalist,  denouncing 
doctrine,  is  yet  himself  preaching  it,  though  it  may 
be  of  a  very  poor  kind. 

One  danger  with  our  doctrines  is  that  they  may 
fall  out  of  touch  with  our  day,  if  not  in  substance 
and  spirit,  then  in  form  and  expression.  They 
necessarily  change  with  the  changing  intellectual, 

vii 


viii  PREFACE 

social  and  spiritual  climate  of  their  age,  a  change 
that  may  be  slow  and  unperceived  in  a  short  time, 
but  is  sure  and  plain  in  the  long  run.  When  one 
reads  a  sermon  fifty  or  a  hundred  years  old  he  is  at 
once  aware  of  a  style  and  tone  different  from  the 
preaching  of  to-day.  Such  change  is  evidence  of 
the  continuous  adaptability  of  Christian  truth  to 
varying  human  needs;  a  sign,  not  of  decay  and 
death,  but  of  vigorous  and  fruitful  life.  Truth  is 
permanent  in  its  essential  nature,  but  its  interpreta- 
tion and  application  are  progressive.  We  still 
wear  clothes,  but  fashions  change;  we  eat  food, 
but  the  dishes  differ.  Yet  this  doctrinal  expression 
may  change  too  slowly  and  thus  lag  behind  the 
times.  If  doctrines  are  preached  to-day  as  they 
were  in  former  days  they  will  strike  the  present 
generation  as  strange  and  unattractive;  whereas 
if  they  are  set  forth  in  the  life  and  language  of 
to-day  they  may  find  a  welcome  reception. 

Doctrine  should  also  be  presented,  not  as  a  dry 
and  rattling  skeleton,  but  clothed  in  flesh  and  blood 
and  pulsing  warm  with  life.  Bones  are  useful 
members  of  the  anatomy,  but  the  higher  animals 
do  not  wear  them  on  the  outside.  Doctrine  should 
appeal  directly  to  experience.  It  should  be  woven 
of  the  same  threads  as  the  general  web  of  human 
life,  and  its  illustrations  should  be  concrete  bits  of 


PREFACE  IX 

daily  happenings.  This  will  relieve  it  of  its  foreign 
and  uninteresting  air  and  bring  it  hpme  to  every 
one's  business  and  bosom.  The  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  fills  a  deep  and  permanent  want  in  the  uni- 
versal human  heart,  and  when  its  doctrines  are  thus 
presented  they  prove  themselves  attractive  and 
popular,  satisfying  and  successful. 

The  present  volume  is  an  attempt  to  state  the 
basal  beliefs  of  Christianity  in  a  form  for  popular 
readers.  It  touches  lightly  on  deep  and  difficult 
matters  and  emphasizes  the  broad  and  practical 
aspects  of  Christian  facts  and  faith.  Its  object  is 
to  present  these  doctrines  so  as  to  show  their  mean- 
ing, their  ground  in  truth  and  reason,  and  their 
application  in  character  and  life.  The  book  of 
course  contains  nothing  new  and  only  aims  to  give 
new  expression  to  old  truths.  It  is  not  intended  for 
theologians  or  ministers,  but  mainly  for  lay  readers. 
Sabbath  school  teachers  and  Christian  workers. 
Pastors  might  use  it  as  a  basis  of  study  with  classes 
of  young  people,  and  thus  take  them  over  the  prin- 
cipal points  of  Christian  doctrine.  If  it  helps  its 
readers  to  gain  a  somewhat  clearer  view  of  Chris- 
tian truth  and  to  hold  it  more  firmly  and  work  it  out 
more  fruitfully  in  life  and  service,  its  aim  will  be 
accomplished. 

Washington,  Pa. 


CONTENTS 


PAGB 

I. 

The  Sources  of  Our  Knowledge  of  Gor 

I 

II. 

The  Existence  of  God 

8 

III. 

The  Personality  of  God    .       .       .       , 

i6 

IV. 

The  Character  of  God 

22 

V. 

Fatherhood  and  Sovereignty  of  God 

28 

VI. 

The  Relation  of  God  to  the  World 

34 

VII. 

Man 

40 

VIII. 

Sin 

46 

IX. 

The  Need  of  the  Incarnation 

53 

X. 

The  Bible 

59 

XL 

Miracles 

^ 

XII. 

The  Person  of  Christ 

73 

XIII. 

The  Sinlessness  of  Christ 

80 

XIV. 

The  Character  of  Christ 

86 

XV. 

The  Consciousness  of  Christ  . 

95 

XVI. 

The  Ministry  of  Christ   . 

lOI 

XVII. 

The  Teaching  of  Christ    . 

108 

XVIII. 

The  Cross  of  Christ 

"5 

XIX. 

The  Virgin  Birth  of  Christ     . 

126 

XX. 

The  Resurrection  of  Christ     . 

133 

XXI. 

Christ  in  History        .... 

144 

XXII. 

Inadequate  Explanations  of  Christ 

IS6 

XXIII. 

The  Holy  Spirit         .... 

167 

XXIV. 

Salvation 

17s 

XXV. 

The  Christian  Life    . 

181 

XXVI. 

The  Church 

191 

XXVII. 

The  Kingdom  of  God 

2Q3 

XXVIII. 

Immortality 

.     213 

XXIX. 

Last  Things 

.     222 

XXX. 

Heaven 

.     232 

0  God,  Thou  hast  made  us  for  Thyself,  and  we  cannot 
rest  until  we  rest  in  Thee. — St.  Augustine. 


Look  on  our  divinest  Symbol:  Jesus  of  Nazareth  and 
His  life  and  His  biography  and  what  followed  therefrom. 
Higher  has  the  human  thought  not  yet  reached:  this  is 
Christianity  and  Christendom,  a  symbol  of  quite  perennial, 
infinite  character:  whose  significance  will  ever  demand  to 
be  anew  inquired  into  and  anew  made  manifest. — Carlyle. 


I  say  the  acknowledgment  of  God  in  Christ 
Accepted  by  thy  reason,  solves  for  thee 
All  questions  in  the  earth  and  out  of  it. 
And  has  so  far  advanced  thee  to  be  wise. 

— Browning, 


Strong  Son  of  God,  immortal  Love, 
Whom  we,  that  have  not  seen  Thy  face, 
By  faith,  and  faith  alone,  embrace. 

Believing  where  we  cannot  prove; 

Thou  seemest  human  and  divine. 
The  highest,  holiest  manhood,  thou: 
Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how ; 

Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make  them  Thine. 

— Tennyson. 


Till  we  all  attain  unto  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  full  grown  man,  unto 
the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ — Paul. 


THE   BASAL   BELIEFS  OF 
CHRISTIANITY 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  SOURCES  OF  OUR  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD 

In  entering  any  field  of  study  it  is  well  to  look  it 
over  and  see  what  means  of  knowledge  it  offers, 
what  are  the  sources  of  light  upon  it.  Christian  be- 
lief begins  and  ends  with  the  Creator,  and  we  there- 
fore begin  these  studies  by  considering  the  sources 
of  our  knowledge  of  God. 

I.  A  widely  accepted  modem  doctrine  is  agnos- 
ticism, which  contends  that  our  minds  are  so  consti- 
tuted that  they  cannot  reach  ultimate  reality  and 
therefore  can  never  know  God.  All  we  can  ever 
know  are  the  appearances  that  present  themselves 
to  our  senses,  but  not  the  realities  that  lie  back  of 
them.  It  turns  out,  however,  that  these  appear- 
ances are  themselves  operations  of  the  Unknowable 
Power,  which  is  Herbert  Spencer's  name  for 
the  ultimate  reality  of  all  things  which  we  call  God ; 
I  z 


2  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

and  therefore  our  knowledge  of  these  operations  is 
so  much  knowledge  of  this  Unknowable  Power, 
which  is  so  far  known,  and  its  name  is  thus  robbed 
of  terror  and  reduced  to  a  contradiction.  Mr.  Spen- 
cer himself  wrote  ten  large  volumes  of  philosophy 
based  on  this  agnostic  principle,  and  yet  every  line 
of  his  more  than  six  thousand  pages  in  so  far  as  it 
contains  truth  tells  us  something  about  this  Unknow- 
able Power,  which  thus  becomes  the  object  of  a 
vast  amount  of  human  knowledge.  The  truth  is 
that  we  know  God  through  his  works  just  as  we 
can  know  anybody  or  anything.  All  our  knowl- 
edge, therefore,  is  so  much  knowledge  of  God. 
Every  ray  of  truth  reveals  him  as  every  ray  of  day- 
light shoots  from  the  sun.  God  is  the  field  of  all 
knowledge,  explored  and  unexplored,  and  when- 
ever we  fuid  out  any  new  truth  we  know  something 
more  about  him.  Every  fact,  truth,  experience  is 
a  revelation  of  him,  a  mirror  that  reflects  some 
light  from  his  face. 

II.  Nature  is  therefore  a  grand  source  of 
knowledge  of  God.  This  was  the  first  witness  that 
caught  the  attention  of  man,  and  is  still  the  most 
picturesque  and  powerful  appeal  to  his  mind  and 
heart.  Its  starry  skies  are  a  spangled  banner  on 
which  his  handiwork  is  inscribed  in  letters  that  even 
savage  eyes  can  read,  and  all  its  myriad  forces  and 


-xf4H 


SOURCES   OF   OUR   KNOWLEDGE  OF   GOD  3 

harmonies  spell  a  cosmos  that  the  scientists  and 
philosophers  are  ever  deciphering.  The  universe 
is  a  system  of  law  and  order,  intelligence  and  pur- 
pose. It  is  a  vast  volume  written  in  a  language 
that  matches  the  intelligence  of  the  human  mind. 
That  it  was  framed  by  a  supreme  mind  and  is  a 
revelation  of  his  thought  and  purpose  is  proved  as 
conclusively  as  that  books  of  science,  which  are 
mere  tiny  transcripts  from  nature's  book,  are  also 
the  products  of  mind  and  purpose.  The  astron- 
omer simply  reads  the  infinite  volume  of  the  sky 
and  is  reading  the  mind  of  God  as  certainly  as  we 
read  the  mind  of  the  astronomer  in  his  volume. 
All  science,  then,  is  knowledge  of  God,  and  science 
is  simply  a  department  of  theology.  And  the  same 
principle  applies  to  history,  literature,  philosophy, 
art,  and  to  all  knowledge  whatsoever;  it  all  brings 
its  grist  to  the  mill  of  theology;  it  all  tells  us 
something  about  God.  Nature,  then,  is  God  made 
visible  and  vivid  to  us.  The  mountains  are  his 
thoughts  spread  out,  the  seas  his  thoughts  poured 
into  their  vast  basins,  the  stars  are  his  thoughts 
on  fire,  the  flowers  are  his  thoughts  shaped  into 
lovely  forms.  So  we  are  ever  to  look  upon  nature 
as  a  revelation  of  his  sublime  face  and  see  in  its 
illuminated  pages  an  older  bible  that  rolled  from  his 
hand. 


4  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

III.  Man  himself  is  a  revelation  of  God  and  a 
primary  source  of  our  knowledge  of  him.  Every 
manifestation  of  a  powder  must  be  judged  by  its 
highest  and  not  by  its  lowest  form  or  product,  the 
plant  by  its  blossom  and  not  by  its  root.  Man  is 
the  topmost  and  finest  blossom  of  this  world,  and 
therefore  is  nearer  to  God  and  more  like  him  than 
anything  else  we  know.  Furthermore,  it  is  a 
fundamental  principle  of  all  psychology  and  philos- 
ophy that  we  cannot  know  anything  except  through 
our  own  minds  and  in  terms  of  our  own  experience. 
Anything  totally  foreign  to  our  minds  would  be 
wholly  unknown  and  unknowable  to  us ;  we  could 
not  even  conceive  it,  much  less  know  or  believe  it. 
We  can  interpret  what  is  outside  of  us  only  by 
means  of  what  is  inside.  It  follows  that  we  can 
know  God  only  because  we  are  like  him  and  can 
interpret  his  being  and  thought  only  in  terms  of 
our  own.  In  this  sense  our  own  minds  are  the 
necessary  and  primary  source  of  our  knowledge  of 
God,  as  of  all  things  else.  The  outstanding  fact 
and  feature  in  the  constitution  of  man  is  that  he  is 
a  person,  a  spirit  endowed  with  reason,  feeling  and 
will,  fused  into  unity  and  living  a  rational  and 
moral  life.  This  fact  at  once  throws  a  broad  beam 
of  light  upon  God  and  reveals  him  to  us  as  a  Per- 
son.   All  our  further  knowledge  of  God  may  be 


SOURCES   OF   OUR   KNOWLEDGE  OF   GOD  5 

said  to  be  an  unfolding  of  his  personality  into  his 
nature  and  his  relations  to  us. 

IV.  This  human  revelation  of  God  comes  to 
its  highest  expression  in  one  race  and  literature, 
the  Jewish  race,  the  best  portions  of  whose  litera- 
ture have  been  winnowed  out  and  stored  up  in  the 
Bible.  God  has  bestowed  differing^gifts  on  races 
and  nations :  upon  the  Greeks  the  genius  of  intel- 
lect blossoming  out  in  philosophy  and  art,  and  upon 
the  Romans  organizing  power  that  built  the  great- 
est political  fabric  the  world  has  ever  seen.  In 
the  same  way  he  bestowed  upon  the  Jews  a  genius 
for  religion,  sensitiveness  to  his  presence  and  voice. 
They  presented  to  him  an  organism  into  which  he 
could  breathe  his  thoughts  or  through  which  he 
could  blow  his  music  more  fully  and  richly  than 
through  any  other  race.  They  were  a  chosen  people 
for  the  high  mission  of  transmitting  his  revelation 
of  redemption  to  the  world.  Their  great  prophets 
and  poets  were  mountain  peaks  that  caught  the  light 
of  the  rising  Sun  of  Righteousness  earlier  than  any 
others  and  reflected  it  out  upon  the  world.  The 
inspired  history  and  teachings  of  this  people  are 
preserved  for  us  in  the  Bible, which  is  thus  a  special 
and  incomparable  revelation  to  us  of  God,  a  chief 
source  of  our  knowledge  of  him. 

V.    This  chosen  race  came  to  its   highest   and 


6  THE   BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

one  perfect  blossom  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  fulfilment 
of  all  that  went  before  in  the  Old  Testament,  and 
the  flower  of  the  New  Testament  whose  leaves  are 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  He  was  at  once 
perfect  Man  and  perfect  God,  the  express  image  of 
his  person  and  the  brightness  of  his  glory.  Through 
him  the  Spirit  of  God  poured  in  unobstructed 
splendor.  He  that  hath  seen  him  hath  seen  the 
Father.  When  he  speaks  God  speaks,  and  when  he 
acts  God's  will  is  done.  His  hand  has  shaped  the 
centuries,  and  all  our  modem  world  is  arranging 
itself  around  him.  When  we  want  to  know  what 
God  is  like,  we  need  only  look  into  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ.  He  is  therefore  our  richest  and  purest 
source  of  knowledge  of  God,  and  all  other  knowl- 
edge should  be  tested  by  this  master  light  of  all  our 
seeing. 

VI.  Yet  one  other  source  remains  that  is  more 
important  than  all  others:  personal  experience. 
However  much  we  may  know  of  an  object  through 
the  indirect  processes  of  hearing  or  reading  about 
it,  we  can  know  it  directly  and  deeply  only  as  we 
enter  into  practical  relations  with  it  and  it  enters 
vitally  into  our  experience.  Such  experience  is 
knowledge  at  first  hand  and  is  clearer  and  surer 
than  all  indirect  knowledge.  This  principle  espe- 
cially applies  to  our  knowledge  of  persons.     We 


SOURCES   OF   OUR   KNOWLEDGE  OF   GOD  7 

know  them  intimately  only  as  we  enter  into  per- 
sonal fellowship  with  them.  Our  knowledge  of 
God  becomes  vivid  and  vital  and  is  transmuted  into 
character  and  life  only  as  we  know  him  through 
personal  faith  and  fellowship,  service  and  sacrifice. 
Our  logical  knowledge  of  him  may  then  be  super- 
ficial and  easily  puzzled,  but  our  practical  acquain- 
tance with  him  may  be  profound  and  calm  and 
comforting,  as  the  surface  of  the  sea  may  be  swept 
with  storm  and  torn  into  spray  and  foam  while  its 
central  deeps  are  undisturbed  and  full  of  peace. 
At  this  point  the  humblest  heart  may  know  God 
as  truly  and  intimately  as  the  greatest  scholar. 
"The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  them  that  fear  him ; 
and  he  will  shew  them  his  covenant." 

These  various  sources  of  knowledge  combine 
into  an  effulgence  of  light  so  that  we  may  know 
God  as  truly  as  we  know  any  object  of  nature  or 
any  friend.  Instead  of  being  an  unknowable  God, 
all  our  knowledge  converges  upon  him  to  disclose 
him  to  us  in  a  blaze  of  light 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   EXISTENCE   OF  GOD 

The  name  God  denotes  an  infinite  personal 
Spirit,  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  all  things. 
Why  do  we  believe  in  such  a  Being? 

I.  Our  belief  in  God  is  older  and  deeper  than 
'  any  reasons  we  can  give  for  it.  We  do  not  frame 
arguments  for  the  existence  of  God  and  then 
beheve  in  him,  but  we  believe  in  him  and  then  frame 
arguments  to  confirm  our  belief.  All  our  funda- 
mental beliefs  spring  out  of  our  practical  needs, 
and  it  is  only  long  after  we  have  developed  and 
used  them  that  we  endeavor  to  prove  them.  It  is  in 
religion  as  in  all  things  else:  art  precedes  science, 
faith  precedes  logic.  Men  lived  in  the  sunlight 
long  before  they  studied  the  sun,  and  cultivated  the 
soil  ages  before  they  understood  its  chemistry.  We 
are  born  with  a  set  of  instincts,  appetites  and 
impulses  which  immediately  push  us  into  action 
before  we  can  think  about  them  or  even  become 
conscious  of  them.  Psychology  is  one  of  the  latest 
of  the  sciences.     The  soul  usually  has  developed  its 

8 


THE   EXISTENCE  OF   GOD  9 

habits  and  the  main  body  of  its  beliefs  before  it 
inquires  into  the  processes  of  their  growth.  Men 
worshiped  God  long  ages  before  they  ever  thought 
of  raising  the  question  of  his  existence.  The  race 
started,  as  the  individual  starts,  with  unquestioning 
faith,  and  doubt  is  a  late  development.  y 

We  have  certain  instinctive  feelings  and  practical 
needs  that  immediately  issue  in  belief  in  God.  The 
feeling  of  dependence  is  one  of  our  primary  in- 
stincts. The  babe  clings  to  its  mother,  and  we 
never  grow  out  of  this  practical  need.  As  we  grow 
up  we  find  ourselves  environed  in  a  Power  that 
stretches  away  into  the  infinite,  and  we  feel  our- 
selves in  its  clutch  as  a  mote  is  in  the  grip  of  gravi- 
tation. Our  hearts  are  made  to  respond  to  this 
Power  and  to  fall  upon  it  as  upon  the  bosom  of 
a  Father  and  there  find  peace  and  rest.  In  a 
similar  way  the  world  appeals  to  our  minds  to 
believe  that  it  is  not  a  blind  chaos,  but  the  expres- 
sion of  a  personal  Being  who  made  the  world  and 
cares  for  us.  We  find  that  we  simply  cannot  live" 
a  worthy  life  in  this  world  without  believing  it  is  the 
product  and  expression  of  a  personal  God.  Such 
a  belief  fits  into  and  satisfies  our  nature,  it  gives 
order  and  significance  to  all  our  experiences,  and 
every  other  belief  throws  the  world  into  confusion 
and   leaves   us   bewildered   and   blind.     It  is  true 


/ 
10  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

that  this  is  the  beginning  of  reasoning  on  the  prob- 
lem of  the  world,  but  such  reason  is  largely  latent 
and  has  not  emerged  into  conscious  processes.  So 
we  start  with  a  practical  belief  in  God  which  is 
deeper  and  stronger  than  all  our  reasoning. 
Reasoning  did  not  create  it,  therefore  reasoning 
can  seldom  destroy  it.  There  is  no  danger  that  ^-^ 
skeptical  science  and  philosophy  will  drive  religious 
faith  out  of  the  world,  because  such  faith  is  rooted 
in  the  heart,  and  the  heart  is  older  and  deeper  than 
the  brain. 

II.  Yet  this  instinctive  practical  faith  soon 
comes  into  contact  with  our  reasoning  powers  and 
must  stand  this  test.  Here  as  elsewhere  we  must 
prove  all  things  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  true. 
There  are  great  arguments  which,  while  they  do 
not  originate  our  belief  in  God,  yet  do  show  us  that 
our  faith  is  well  grounded  and  thereby  clarify  and 
confirm  it.  One  of  these  is  known  as  the  cosmo-'/ 
logical  argument,  or  the  argument  from  the  prin- 
ciple of  causation.  We  derive  this  principle  from 
our  own  experience  in  the  exercise  of  our  wills. 
When  we  will  a  certain  action  we  are  immediately 
aware  that  our  will  is  the  cause  and  that  the  action 
follows  as  its  eflfect.  We  soon  learn  to  discern 
effects  and  to  trace  them  back  to  their  causes. 
Now  the  world  is  full  of  changes  that  bear  the 


THE   EXISTENCE   OF   GOD  II 

marks  of  being-  effects,  and  the  world  itself  appears 
to  us  in  this  light.  It  is  not  an  unchanging  thing, 
but  at  every  moment  it  springs  out  of  a  prior  con- 
dition. It  is  therefore  an  effect  which  must  have 
had  a  cause.  As  we  know  that  a  manufactured 
fabric  must  have  had  a  sufficient  cause  in  a 
maker,  so  we  are  forced  to  believe  that  the  world 
itself  must  have  a  Cause  that  is  sufficient  to  ac- 
count for  it.  It  has  been  objected  to  this  argument 
that  it  does  not  prove  an  infinite  Cause,  but  only 
a  cause  sufficient  to  produce  a  finite  world.  But 
any  finite  cause  is  itself  dependent  and  caused, 
and  we  do  not  reach  a  true  First  Cause  until  we  ^ 
leap  back  of  the  succession  or  chain  of  events  to  a 
Cause  that  is  itself  uncaused;  and  thus  our  sense 
of  causation  as  regards  the  world  is  not  satisfied 
until  we  reach  God. 

III.  Another  principal  argument  for  the  exist-  ^^ 
ence  of  God  is  the  well-known  argument  from 
design,  which  is  really  a  special  application  of  the 
argument  from  cause.  The  world  bears  the  marks 
of  mind  as  well  as  the  marks  of  dependence.  It 
is  an  intelligible  fabric  throughout,  a  tissue  of 
intellectual  relations.  All  its  forms  and  forces  are 
letters  that  spell  words  of  law  and  order,  wisdom 
and  purpose.  The  astronomer  reads  the  vast  vol- 
ume of  the  heavens  and  transcribes  what  he  reads 


12  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

into  the  little  volume  of  his  science.  Every  other 
science  is  doing  the  same  thing,  and  thus  science 
is  slowly  but  surely  deciphering  the  book  of  nature. 
Nowhere  does  the  scientist  ever  find  any  irregular  or 
irrational  fact  or  event,  but  everywhere  he  finds 
exact  and  beautiful  order  and  purpose.  And  he 
has  absolute  confidence  that  the  same  order  and 
purpose  everywhere  pervade  the  universe,  and  that 
there  is  in  it  no  secret  corner  or  hidden  depth 
that  conceals  one  atom  of  irrationality.  Now  we 
never  fail  to  connect  a  book  that  can  be  read  with  a 
a  mind  that  wrote  it.  Such  a  book  is  a  mirror  in 
which  we  see  reflected  another  mind  like  our  own. 
Nature  itself  is  just  such  a  book  in  which  we  see  . 
mirrored  the  mind  of  its  Author.  Unless,  then,  l/ 
it  takes  more  intelligence  to  construe  the  book  of 
nature  than  to  construct  it,  to  read  it  than  to  write 
it,  we  must  look  through  it  into  the  mind  of  its 
Author  and  see  a  personal  God. 

IV.  A  chief  argument  for  the  existence  of  God 
is  man  himself.  Everything  that  comes  out  in  the 
effect  must  have  been  in  the  cause.  The  stream 
can  rise  no  higher  than  its  source,  and  the  maker 
cannot  be  lower  and  less  than  what  he  has  made. 
Man  is  a  product,  and  as  such  throws  light  upon 
God.  Man  is  an  intelligent  person,  and  therefore 
God   cannot   fall   below   this   plane.     His   person- 


THE   EXISTENCE   OF   GOD  I3 

ality  may  be  infinitely  higher  than  that  of  man,  but 
it  cannot  be  less.  Every  faculty  in  man  must  be 
a  tiny  shadow  of  a  corresponding  power  in  God. 
Not  only  so,  but  God  must  match  and  satisfy  the  , 
nature  of  man  at  every  point,  otherwise  he  has  pro- 
duced an  irrational  creature  with  a  falsehood 
inwrought  into  its  very  constitution.  The  instinc- 
tive needs  and  yearnings  of  man,  his  spiritual 
faculties  of  faith  and  aspiration  and  worship,  must 
all  find  their  home  and  satisfaction  in  God.  Man 
is  a  child  who  calls  for  a  Father,  and  he  trusts  his 
own  cry  as  a  sure  ground  of  faith  in  him. 

The  reality  that  is  closest  and  surest  to  us  is  first 
our  own  soul  and  next  the  world  in  which  we  live. 
The  soul  within  us  and  the  world  without  are 
irrational  fragments  and  cruel  disappointments  and 
deceptions  unless  they  are  completed  in  an  infinite  / 
Creator  and  Father.  Without  God  all  things  are 
emptied  of  rationality  and  hope,  and  the  world 
becomes  a  miserable  muddle;  with  God  on  the 
throne,  all  things  fall  into  order  and  harmony, 
wisdom  and  love.  This  comprehensive  reason 
convinces  and  satisfies  the  mind  and  heart;  and 
therefore  we  believe  in  God. 

V.  What  would  the  world  be  without  a  God? 
Let  Jean  Paul  Richter  answer  in  his  Dream  of  a 
World   Without  a   God :   "I  dreamed  I   was   in   a 


14  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

churchyard  at  midnight.  Overhead  I  heard  the 
thunder  of  distant  avalanches  and  beneath  my  feet 
the  first  footfalls  of  a  boundless  earthquake. 
Lightning  gleamed  athwart  the  church  windows 
and  the  lead  and  iron  frames  melted  and  rolled 
down.  Christ  appeared  and  all  the  dead  cried 
out,  'Is  there  no  God?'  And  Christ  answered, 
'There  is  none.  I  have  traversed  the  worlds,  I 
have  risen  to  the  suns,  with  the  milky  ways  I  have 
passed  athwart  the  great  waste  spaces  of  the  sky: 
there  is  no  God.  And  I  descended  to  where  the 
very  shadow  cast  by  Being  dies  out  and  ends,  and 
I  gazed  out  into  the  gulf  beyond  and  cried,  "Father, 
where  art  thou  ?"  But  answer  came  none,  save  the 
eternal  storm  which  rages  on.  We  are  orphans  all, 
both  I  and  you.  We  have  no  Father.'  Then  the 
universe  sank  and  became  a  mine  dug  in  the  face  of 
the  black  eternal  night  besprent  with  thousand  suns. 
And  Christ  cried,  'Oh,  mad  unreasoning  Chance; 
Knowest  thou — thou  knowest  not — where  thou 
dost  march,  hurricane-winged,  amid  the  whirling 
snow  of  stars,  extinguishing  sun  after  sun  on  thy 
onward  way,  and  when  the  sparkling  dew  of  con- 
stellations ceases  to  gleam,  as  thou  dost  pass  by? 
How  every  soul  in  this  great  corpse-trench  of  a 
universe  is  utterly  alone?'  And  I  fell  down  and 
peered    into    the    shining    mass    of    worlds,    and 


THE   EXISTENCE  OF  GOD  1 5 

beheld  the  coils  of  the  great  Serpent  of  etemity 
twined  about  those  worlds;  these  mighty  coils 
began  to  writhe  and  then  again  they  tightened  and 
contracted,  folding  around  the  universe  twice  as 
closely  as  before;  they  wound  about  all  nature  in 
thousand  folds,  and  crashed  the  worlds  together. 
And  all  grew  narrow  and  dark  and  terrible.  And 
then  a  great  immeasurable  bell  began  to  swing  and 
toll  the  last  hour  of  time  and  shatter  the  fabric  of 
the  universe,  when  my  sleep  broke  up  and  I  awoke. 
And  my  soul  wept  for  joy  that  I  could  still  worship 
God — my  gladness  and  my  weeping  and  my  faith, 
these  were  my  prayer." 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  PERSONALITY  OF  GOD 

After  the  existence  of  God  has  been  proved  or 
belief  in  him  has  been  accepted  the  value  of  such 
belief  depends  on  the  kind  of  God  who  is  thus 
believed  in.  One  of  the  fundamental  questions  as 
to  the  nature  of  God  is  his  personality. 

I.  Pantheism  denies  the  personality  of  God. 
While  holding  to  an  ultimate  ground  of  all  things, 
yet  it  views  this  as  an  Absolute  in  which  there  is 
no  consciousness  or  will  except  such  as  emerges  in 
human  or  other  finite  manifestations  or  aspects  of 
this  all-inclusive  being.  Such  an  Absolute  may  well 
up  in  us  as  consciousness,  but  in  itself  is  an  infinite 
abyss  or  womb  out  of  which  all  finite  things  arise 
and  into  which  they  again  fall  back,  as  waves  and 
bubbles  emerge  out  of  the  sea,  for  a  moment  float 
on  its  surface  and  then  sink  into  its  formless 
depths.  "An  immense  solitary  specter — it  hath  no 
shape,  it  hath  no  sound,  it  hath  no  time,  it  hath  no 
place.  It  is,  it  was,  it  will  be,  it  is  never  more  or 
less,  nor  sad  nor  glad.    It  is  nothing — and  the  sands 

i6 


./ 


THE   PERSONALITY   OF   GOD  VJ 

fall  down  in  the  hour-glass,  and  the  hands  sweep 
around  the  dial  and  men  alone  live  and  strive  and 
hate  and  love  and  know  it."  Pantheism  saturates 
the  thought  and  life  of  India  and  the  Far  East,  and 
there  it  brings  forth  its  fatalistic  fruits.  The  doc- 
trine is  logically  and  practically  destructive  of  all 
true  religion  and  runs  straight  to  fatalism  and  in 
the  end  is  equally  destructive  of  the  personality 
of  man.  In  such  a  world  all  things  are  necessary 
and  equally  good  or  evil,  and  man  himself  is  only 
one  of  the  myriad  bubbles  on  the  surface  of  the 
weltering  ocean  of  being  and  his  personality  one  of 
the  countless  illusions  of  the  world. 

II.  Theism  opposes  to  pantheism  the  doctrine 
of  the  personality  of  God.  It  affirms  that  the 
creative  Cause  of  the  world  is  a  spirit  endowed  with 
intelligence,  sensibility  and  will,  fused  into  the  unity 
of  personality  and  living  a  free  moral  life.  Its 
reasons  for  this  affirmation  are  the  same  grounds 
that  prove  the  existence  of  God.  Our  instinctive 
belief  in  God  is  that  he  is  a  personal  bemg  and  no 
other  kind  of  God  would  satisfy  our  practical 
needs.  All  early  views  of  God  are  intensely  per- 
sonalistic,  and  pantheism  is  a  late  development. 
The  historic  proofs  of  the  existence  of  God  that 
have  stood  the  stress  of  the  ages  all  arrive  at  a  per- 
sonal God.    The  cosmological  or  causal  argument 

2 


l8  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF    CHRISTIANITY 

springs  from  a  personal  root  in  our  own  wills.  We 
immediately  know  cause  only  as  it  is  exercised  in 
ourselves,  and  as  every  effect  we  thus  know  and 
cause  is  the  product  of  a  personal  will,  so  we  can 
view  the  world  itself  only  as  having  been  caused  in 
the  same  way.  Still  more  directly  and  conclusively 
does  the  argument  from  design  lead  to  a  personal 
Creator.  The  marks  of  order  and  purpose  we  see 
in  the  world  are  all  mirrors  that  reflect  a  personal 
intelligence,  the  only  kind  of  intelligence  we  can 
conceive.  And  as  man  himself  is  one  of  our  chief 
arguments  for  God,  so  he  is  one  of  our  chief  proofs 
of  God's  personality.  To  suppose  that  the  Cause 
of  the  world  is  a  blind  abyss  or  womb  that  could 
eject  streams  of  consciousness  that  rise  higher  than 
their  source  is  to  contradict  all  our  principles  of 
belief.  Thus  the  world  itself,  especially  in  its 
highest  forms  or  products,  forbids  our  falling  into 
the  pit  of  pantheism  and  drives  us  up  to  the  summit 
of  theism. 

III.  Yet  philosophy  has  raised  a  difficulty  in 
the  way  of  theism  that  has  profoundly  affected 
even  our  Occidental  thinking  and  carried  some  of 
our  greatest  thinkers  near  if  not  into  the  pantheism 
of  the  Orient.  This  is  the  doctrine  that  personality 
implies  limitation,  and  therefore  cannot  apply  to 
the  Infinite  and  Absolute  being.     It  involves,  it  is 


THE   PERSONALITY  OF   GOD  I9 

said,  the  necessary  relation  of  self  to  others  and, 
more  definitely,  of  subject  and  object,  and  such 
relations  would  destroy  the  very  constitution  of  the 
Infinite  and  the  Absolute.  This  difficulty  is  more 
verbal  than  real  and  grows  out  of  our  definitions 
rather  than  out  of  our  experience.  The  self  is  at 
once  subject  and  object  in  our  own  experience, 
and  the  same  may  be  true  of  higher  beings,  even 
of  God. 

The  answer  to  this  difficulty  is  that  personality  is 
not  a  limitation  but  an  added  power.  It  is  the 
ability  to  know  and  feel  and  act,  and  this  is  not  a 
contraction  but  an  enormous  expansion  of  being. 
The  absence  of  such  ability  would  be  a  limitation 
and  loss  beyond  any  other  possible  loss.  The  fact 
is  that  our  human  personality  is  imperfect  and  germ- 
inal, only  a  faint  shadow  of  what  even  we  may 
conceive  personality  to  be.  In  conception  we  can 
remove  the  barriers  that  contract  and  hinder  our 
personality,  and  this  process  carried  to  its  logical 
limit  gives  us  an  infinite  Person,  or  God.  As 
Lotze  shows  in  his  great  chapter  on  the  personality 
of  God,  "Perfect  Personality  is  in  God  only,  to  all 
finite  minds  there  is  alloted  but  a  pale  copy  thereof ; 
the  finiteness  of  the  finite  is  not  a  producing  con- 
dition of  this  Personality  but  a  limit  and  a  hindrance 
to  its  development."     One  of  the  great  triumphs  of 


20  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

modern  philosophy,  as  we  believe,  is  its  demon- 
stration that  personality  is  not  necessary  limitation 
and  that  it  arises  to  its  logical  perfection  in  God. 
IV.  Yet  we  are  not  to  suppose  that  the  person- 
ality of  God  is  a  mere  copy  or  enlargement  of  our 
human  personality.  If  God  were  the  simple  uni- 
tary consciousness  that  we  experience  in  ourselves, 
what  kind  of  existence  did  he  lead  in  the  eternity 
before  he  put  forth  his  creative  power  in  worlds 
and  in  finite  spirits?  The  question  plunges  us  into 
profound  difficulties,  and  is  in  danger  of  leading  us 
back  into  pantheism.  Philosophy  has  worked  out 
a  higher  conception  of  God's  personality  than  a 
copy  of  our  own.  We  are  not  without  hints  or 
germs  of  such  higher  personality  in  our  own  souls. 
Our  consciousness  breaks  into  the  three  different 
kinds  of  experience  which  we  call  intelligence,  sen- 
sibility and  will.  These  are  quite  distinct  in  kind, 
and  yet  they  fuse  into  one  consciousness.  Might 
not  these  be  projected  into  higher  states  of  develop- 
ment in  which  they  would  become  still  more  distinct 
and  begin  to  show  in  themselves  some  of  the  powers 
or  aspects  of  personality?  This  would  result  in  a 
complex  consciousness  in  which  there  would  be 
some  of  the  interrelations  of  social  life  and  love. 
It  is  such  a  conception  that  some  philosophers  denom- 
inate   "hyperpersonality,"    which   simply  means   a 


THE   PERSONALITY   OF   GOD  21 

type  of  personality  lying  on  a  higher  level  and 
living  a  more  exalted  and  perfect  life  than  our  own. 
Here  we  have  evidently  arrived  at  the  borders  of 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  While  God 
in  the  Old  Testament  is  emphatically  a  monotheistic 
God,  yet  in  the  New  Testament  and  in  Christian 
experience  he  unfolds  into  a  trinitarian  God  in 
which  three  persons  co-exist  in  a  social  life ;  and  yet 
these  three  are  not  Ihree  Gods,  but  one  God.  We 
can  hardly  state  the  doctrine  without  involving  our- 
selves in  inconsistent  language  and  logic,  and  yet  it 
is  deeply  rooted  in  philosophy,  in  Scripture  and  in 
Christian  experience.  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Spirit 
are  the  three  persons  of  the  Godhead  who  dwelt  in 
reciprocal  life  and  love  through  all  eternity,  and 
who  manifest  their  unitary  life  in  creation,  provi- 
dence and  redemption.  This  is  indeed  one  of  the 
"high  mysteries"  of  our  faith,  but  it  lies  at  the  root 
of  our  philosophical  and  theological  thought  and 
enters  vitally  into  our  Christian  experience;  and  so 
it  must  be  included  among  our  basal  beliefs.^ 

^For  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  subjects  considered 
in  paragraphs  III  and  IV  see  the  author's  The  World  a 
Spiritual  System:  an  Outline  of  Metaphysics,  pp.  183-194- 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  GOD 


Even  more  important  than  the  question  of  the 
personality  of  God  is  the  question  of  his  character. 
Belief  in  a  good  God  is  the  source  of  optimistic  faith 
and  life,  but  belief  in  an  evil  God  would  spread  the 
blackest  cloud  that  could  be  conceived  over  the  sky 
of  the  universe. 

I.  God  is  a  moral  being.  This  results  directly 
from  his  personality.  A  free  will  acting  in  the  light 
of  intelligence  under  the  pressure  of  feelings  is  the 
foundation  of  responsibility  and  moral  character, 
and  we  have  already  seen  that  God  possesses  these 
powers.  The  moral  character  of  man  is  also  a 
proof  of  the  moral  character  of  God,  on  the  principle 
that  every  essential  element  in  the  nature  of  man 
must  have  had  its  roots  in  God  and  is  an  outgrowth 
of  his  nature.  Conscience  is  the  imperial  power  in 
man,  legislating  on  all  matters  of  conduct,  imposing 
its  decrees  and  bestowing  its  rewards  and  retribu- 
tion, and  therefore  we  must  believe  that  the  same 
power  exists  in  its  highest  perfection  in  God. 

22 


THE   CHARACTER  OF  GOD  23 

II.  But  the  question  still  confronts  us  whether 
this  moral  nature  of  God  is  good,  or  evil,  or  a 
mixture  of  both.  The  fact  that  we  find  ourselves  in 
a  world  of  mixed  good  and  evil  throws  doubt 
upon  this  question  and  has  made  it  one  of  the  great 
enigmas  of  the  ages.  The  world  of  nature  is  sown 
with  storm  and  strife,  pain  and  death,  and  the 
human  world  is  a  scene  of  discord  and  hatred, 
disease  and  misery,  sin  and  crime.  Does  not  such 
a  world  throw  its  black  shadow  up  against  the  char- 
acter of  God  himself?  Can  a  good  God  produce  an 
evil  world,  and  does  not  an  evil  world  point  to  an 
evil  God  ?  The  human  mind  and  heart  has  wrestled 
with  these  questions  through  all  ages,  and  they  have 
ever  been  the  world's  Gethsemane.  Yet  in  spite  of 
these  evils  men  have  generally  believed  in  a  good 
God,  and  nearly  all  the  religions  of  the  world,  espe- 
cially the  higher  and  purer  ones,  have  held  to  this 
faith.  As  to  the  evils  in  nature,  they  are  seen  to  be 
in  a  large  degree  only  apparent,  imputed  to  nature  by 
our  own  imagination,  and  the  planet  is  seen  to  be  a 
world  still  in  the  making  and  in  a  state  of  evolution 
towards  higher  perfection.  As  to  the  evils  in  our 
human  world,  they  are  seen  to  be  largely  due  to 
human  responsibility  and  transgression.  Man  is  a 
germinal  being  in  his  faculties  and  a  fallen  being 
by  reason  of  his  disobedience  to  moral  law  as  known 


24  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

to  his  own  conscience.  The  world  is  fitted  up  to 
suit  such  a  being.  It  is  a  school  in  which  his  germ- 
inal powers  are  being  developed,  a  hospital  in 
which  his  physical  and  moral  diseases  are  being 
healed,  and  a  field  of  service  in  which  he  is 
working  out  the  great  problems  and  ends  of  his 
existence.  In  the  light  of  these  facts  we  believe 
that,  in  spite  of  the  vast  amount  of  evil  in  the  world, 
God  is  not  responsible  for  it,  except  in  the  sense 
that  he  has  seen  wise  to  permit  it,  and  that  he  is 
good.  Just  how  to  reconcile  his  goodness  with 
evil  at  particular  points  is  often  a  problem  that  lies 
far  beyond  our  power,  and  yet  we  believe  that  the 
skirts  of  his  holiness  are  clear  and  that  with  suffi- 
cient knowledge  we  could  pluck  the  heart  out  of 
this  mystery. 

III.  The  light  of  reason  and  nature  must  ever 
remain  dim  in  the  presence  of  this  great  problem 
and  can  never  reach  a  full  and  final  solution.  It  is 
at  this  point  that  revelation  lets  fall  its  fuller  light. 
The  Bible  is  a  record  of  this  revelation.  In  broad 
contrast  with  heathen  gods  that  are  more  or  less 
stained  with  human  faults  and  vices  and  are  only 
magnified  sinful  men,  the  God  of  the  Bible  is  a  God 
of  righteousness.  "Will  not  the  Judge  of  all  the 
earth  do  right?"  is  the  central  question  of  the  Old 
Testament    and    all    its    teaching    in    precept   and 


THE   CHARACTER  OF  GOD  2$ 

example,  doctrine  and  ordinance,  reveals  God  in 
the  light  of  holiness.  The  New  Testament  advances 
to  a  still  higher  view  of  the  moral  nature  of  God. 
Its  central  principle  is  that  "God  is  love"  and  it  sets 
forth  all  his  attributes  and  activities  as  manifesta- 
tions of  this  element.  The  total  teaching  of  the 
Bible  on  this  point  is  that  God  is  light  and  in  him 
is  no  darkness  at  all. 

IV.  The  supreme  revelation  of  the  character  of 
God  is  Jesus  Christ.  His  white  life  grew  up  out  of 
the  hard  soil  of  Judea  as  the  one  perfect  thing 
this  world  has  ever  seen.  After  all  these  centuries 
of  moral  advancement  and  philosophical  study  of 
ethics  his  character  is  still  the  perfect  pattern  of 
goodness,  the  only  flawless  diamond  that  shines 
resplendent  amidst  all  the  imperfect  jewels  of  char- 
acter in  the  world.  In  him  all  virtues  and  graces 
combine  in  faultless  proportion  and  harmony. 
Truth  and  trust,  purity  and  patience  and  peace, 
meekness  and  manliness,  gentleness  and  goodness 
and  love,  sympathy  and  service  and  sacrifice  blend 
their  various  rays  into  the  pure  light  of  his  white 
soul,  and  he  shines  as  the  Star  of  the  ages,  the  Sun 
of  Righteousness.  That  Character,  no  dream  of  a 
novelist  or  vision  of  a  poet,  was  a  living  Fact  in 
the  world,  and  as  such  it  bears  witness  to  the  nature 
of  the  First  Cause  out  of  which  the  world  came; 


26  THE  BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

it  throws  a  powerful  beam  of  light  into  the  very 
heart  of  God.  "He  that  hath  seen  me,"  said  Christ, 
"hath  seen  the  Father,"  and  this  is  the  true  import 
of  his  life  and  character.  In  Jesus  Christ  God  has 
come  forth  in  visible  form  so  that  men  could  see 
his  face  and  touch  his  hand  and  assuredly  know 
what  manner  of  God  he  is ;  and  in  the  light  of  his 
Son  we  know  that  the  Father  is  holiness  and  love. 

V.  Holiness  and  love  are  the  two  fundamental 
attributes  of  God.  Holiness  is  God's  purity  and 
righteousness.  It  is  that  element  in  his  nature  by 
which  he  is  free  from  all  wrong  and  by  which  he 
possesses  all  right.  Holiness  is  primarily  a  self- 
regarding  attribute  in  God,  the  self-affirmation  of 
the  integrity  and  worth  of  his  character.  It  is 
therefore  something  that  must  be  exercised  and 
maintained  in  all  conditions  and  at  all  cost.  It  is 
the  standard  of  right  for  the  universe,  and  is  the 
law  of  character  and  conduct  for  all  creatures. 
The  love  of  God  is  his  benevolence  or  good  will  or 
affection,  first  for  himself  in  his  trinitarian  rela- 
tions, and  then  for  his  creatures.  It  is  his  expansive 
nature  by  which  he  pours  himself  into  other  lives 
and  shares  with  them  his  own  blessedness.  The 
love  of  God  is  thus  his  other-regarding  attribute 
and  is  his  self-impartation. 

The  relation  of  these  fundamental  attributes  in 


THE   CHARACTER   OF   GOD  ^ 

the  character  of  God  has  been  much  discussed. 
Some  hold  that  holiness  is  the  more  fundamental 
attribute  and  that  love  is  an  element  or  aspect  of  it, 
and  others  reverse  this  relation  and  make  love  the 
more  fundamental  attribute  with  holiness  or  justice 
as  one  of  its  elements.  Thus  Dr.  W.  N.  Clarke 
says  that  "holiness  is  central  in  God,  but  love  is 
central  in  holiness";  and  President  Strong,  revers- 
ing this  relation,  says  that  "love  is  central  in  God, 
but  holiness  is  central  in  love."  The  perfection  of 
either  of  these  attributes  involves  the  other. 
Perfect  holiness  will  be  loving,  and  perfect  love  will 
be  holy,  and  both  are  central  and  all-pervasive  in 
the  character  of  God.  Yet  it  must  be  admitted 
that  there  is  a  larger  voluntary  element  in  love  than 
in  holiness.  God  must  be  just,  but  he  exercises 
his  love  according  to  his  free  will. 

With  a  holy  loving  God  on  the  throne  of  the 
universe,  with  a  good  Father  in  the  world,  all 
existence  becomes  rational,  moral  and  hopeful,  and 
our  human  life  becomes  a  childhood  in  its  Father's 
home. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    FATHERHOOD    AND    THE    SOVEREIGNTY    OF    GOD 

These  two  attributes  or  aspects  of  God  have 
sometimes  been  set  in  competition  and  have  even 
been  regarded  as  being  in  "suicidal  contradiction"; 
but  a  proper  view  of  their  nature  and  relations 
shows  that  they  are  mutually  complementary  and 
harmonious.  Either  would  not  be  perfect  without 
the  other. 

I.  Fatherhood  is  essential  in  the  nature  of  God. 
He  did  not  begin  to  be  a  Father  when  he  created 
finite  spirits,  but  he  was  Father  from  all  eternity. 
The  Godhead  is  essentially  and  eternally  a  relation- 
ship or  society  of  personal  distinctions  in  which 
Father,  Son  and  Spirit  exist  in  mutual  love.  This 
complex  rich  nature  of  the  Godhead  is  independent 
of  the  act  of  creation,  and  is  the  necessary  condition 
of  the  blessedness  and  the  very  existence  of  God. 
Without  these  internal  and  essential  relations  God 
would  sink  into  a  unitary  Absolute  or  pantheistic 
Fate  in  which  all  thought  and  will  and  love  would 
be   impossible.      The    doctrine   of   the   Trinity   is 


FATHERHOOD   AND   SOVEREIGNTY  OF   GOD         29 

grounded,  not  only  in  Scripture  and  Christian  experi- 
ence, but  also  in  philosophy,  and  is  the  root  out  of 
which  spring  all  created  fatherhoods  and  sonships 
and  personal  relations.  The  core  of  fatherhood 
is  kinship  and  love ;  it  is  a  self-imparting  and  expan- 
sive nature  that  goes  out  to  find  satisfaction  in 
others  of  its  own  kind.  It  was  this  Fatherhood  in 
God  that  prompted  him  to  create  human  children. 
His  Fatherhood  was  eternally  satisfied  in  his  own 
eternal  Son,  but  it  also  sought  further  expression 
and  satisfaction  in  created  sons.  His  Fatherhood 
to  his  eternal  Son  was  the  source  and  pattern  of 
his  Fatherhood  to  his  created  sons,  and  the  sonship 
of  the  eternal  Son  was  the  pattern  of  created  son- 
ship.  This  is  the  meaning  of  Paul  when  he  said 
that  he  bowed  his  knees  "unto  the  Father,  from 
whom  every  fatherhood  in  heaven  and  on  earth  is 
named."  Thus  Fatherhood  is  essential  in  God, 
and  is  the  eternal  fountain  out  of  which  all 
human  sonships  flow. 

H.  God's  sovereignty  is  his  right  and  power 
to  rule;  it  is  his  control  over  all  things,  subject  to 
no  external  power  and  determined  only  by  his  own 
will  and  nature.  This  sovereignty  is  expressed  in 
his  eternal  purpose  and  decrees,  by  which  he  deter- 
mines whatsoever  comes  to  pass.  These  decrees 
must  include  the  whole  creation  in  its  broad  plan 


30  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

and  least  details.  Human  wills  must  be  comprised 
within  God's  purpose,  otherwise  there  would  be 
areas  of  his  world  in  which  he  would  not  be  sover- 
eign. His  foreknowledge  must  see  in  the  light  of 
omniscience  every  future  event,  or  he  would  be  sub- 
ject to  continual  surprise  and  be  exposed  to  failure 
or  defeat.  Yet  God's  sovereignty  must  evidently 
exercise  a  control  over  human  acts  different  from 
that  which  he  exercises  over  non-personal  agents. 
His  sovereignty  over  all  that  lies  below  the  personal 
plane  is  absolute,  and  the  world  of  nature  is  the 
expression  of  his  pure  thought  and  will;  but  the 
world  of  personal  spirits  is  not  subject  to  such 
sovereignty,  for  this  would  destroy  its  free  agency 
and  responsibility  and  thereby  depersonalize  it. 
Divine  sovereignty  must  respect  human  freedom. 
Yet  this  is  not  a  limitation  on  the  divine  sover- 
eignty, but  only  a  description  of  what  is  possible 
to  it.  God  can  still  work  with,  in  and  through  the 
human  will  so  as  to  work  out  his  purpose.  Even 
the  human  soul  can  influence  and  control  another 
soul  in  accordance  with  the  nature  of  the  soul, 
and  one  clothed  with  great  personal  power  or  official 
authority  can  thus  sway  multitudes  of  men:  much 
more  can  God  thus  control  them.  Through  permis- 
sion, restraint,  positive  influence  and  action  God 
can  accomplish  his  will  and  is  sovereign  at  every 


FATHERHOOD   AND   SOVEREIGNTY  OF   GOD         3 1 

point.     Such  sovereignty  is  the  foundation  of  his 
throne,  without  which  God  would  not  be  God. 

III.  These  two  aspects  must  now  be  brought 
into  relation  and  harmony.  The  divine  Fatherhood 
must  have  the  divine  sovereignty;  fatherhood  with- 
out sovereignty  would  degenerate  into  indulgence 
and  pitiful  weakness,  and  thereby  defeat  the  very 
end  of  fatherhood.  Fatherhood  looks  on  its  chil- 
dren as  its  own  kin,  the  objects  of  its  own  care  and 
love,  in  whose  beatitude  it  finds  its  own  satisfaction 
and  joy.  Such  fatherhood  must  therefore  have  the 
wisdom  to  see,  the  righteousness  to  impose,  and  the 
power  to  enforce  the  true  conditions  of  the  good 
of  its  children.  A  father  who  is  deficient  at  any  of 
these  points  so  that  he  does  not  have  the  intel- 
lectual and  ethical  insight  to  discern  and  the  firmness 
and  power  to  require  the  right  conditions  of  life 
and  character,  will  do  his  children  more  harm  than 
good,  and  may  unwittingly  turn  out  to  be  their 
greatest  enemy.  Many  a  family  has  been  ruined 
through  the  ignorant  or  weak  indulgence  of  a  kind 
father.  The  Fatherhood  of  God  is  saved  at  this 
point  by  his  sovereignty.  His  omniscience  and 
omnipotence,  his  wisdom  and  righteousness,  reside 
within  his  Fatherhood  and  give  it  guidance  and 
firmness.  His  love  would  cease  to  be  true  love  if 
it  were  not  informed  and  sustained  by  his  righteous- 


32  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

ness  and  authority,  and  thus  his  sovereignty  saves 
his  Fatherhood. 

IV.  In  like  manner  God's  Fatherhood  informs 
and  guides  his  sovereignty.  There  are  several  types 
of  sovereignty  among  men,  from  which  we  derive 
our  conceptions  of  divine  sovereignty.  There  is  the 
absolute  sovereignty  of  despotism,  which  consists 
in  sheer  power  and  arbitrary  will.  Law  does  not 
make  the  despot,  but  the  despot  makes  law. 
Such  a  conception  of  sovereignty  does  not  apply  to 
God.  The  next  type  of  sovereignty  is  that  of  the 
constitutional  monarch.  He  does  not  make  law, 
but  law  makes  him,  and  the  same  law  that  enthroned 
may  also  dethrone  him.  Neither  does  this  type  of 
sovereignty  apply  to  God.  An  older  type  of  sover- 
eignty is  the  paternal.  In  this  the  father  begets 
the  son  and  rules  over  him  by  natural  and  necessary 
right.  At  first  this  rule  is  practically  absolute,  as 
the  child  is  in  the  unconscious  dependence  of 
infancy.  But  as  the  child  grows  into  maturity 
and  full  responsibility  the  paternal  sovereignty  of 
the  father  grows  into  the  guidance  of  wisdom  and 
the  joy  of  fellowship.  The  father  now  exercises 
a  gentle  control  over  the  son,  and  sovereignty  is 
almost  lost  in  love;  and  yet  it  is  still  there  and,  if 
occasion  were  to  arise,  could  and  would  show  itself 
in  decisive  and  even  terrible  action.     Yet  the  father 


FATHERHOOD   AND   SOVEREIGNTY   OF  GOD         33 

is  not  thinking  of  his  sovereignty  in  his  relations 
with  his  children,  but  of  their  beatitude  and  of  his 
own  joy  in  them.  It  is  this  paternal  type  of  sover- 
eignty that  exists  in  its  perfection  in  God.  God  is 
love,  and  his  whole  nature  goes  out  toward  his 
children  for  their  good  and  for  his  own  glory. 

The  divine  Fatherhood  and  the  divine  sovereignty 
are  thus  mutually  complementary  and  are  interfused 
into  one  nature.  Fatherhood  without  sovereignty 
would  be  blind  and  weak  indulgence  that  would 
work  ultimate  harm,  and  sovereignty  without 
Fatherhood  would  be  despotism  intolerable  on  earth 
or  in  heaven.  Neither  office  can  be  discharged 
without  the  other.  The  two,  so  far  from  being 
antagonistic  or  in  "suicidal  contradiction,"  are 
coincident  in  origin  and  exercise,  and  only  as  they 
blend  into  one  perfect  nature  does  God  become  God, 
the  Father  of  his  children  and  the  Ruler  of  his 
universe,  the  Source  of  all  blessing  to  his  creatures 
and  blessed  in  himself  forevermore. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  RELATION    OF  GOD  TO  THE  WORLD 

The  theistic  and  Christian  view  of  the  world  is 
that  it  is  the  product  of  God's  creative  wisdom  and 
will,  in  which  he  dwells  and  works  out  his  pur- 
poses. The  world  falls  into  two  distinct  parts : 
nature  and  man;  and  these  may  be  considered 
separately. 

I.  Nature  is  all  that  part  of  the  world  that  falls 
below  the  personal  plane.  All  theistic  theories  re- 
gard it  as  the  outgoing  of  God  in  creative  thought 
and  energy  by  which  he  gives  expression  to  his 
intelligence,  feeling  and  will.  We  find  that  nature 
is  an  intellectual  fabric  throughout,  expressing  and 
embodying  thought  as  plainly  as  a  book ;  and  equally 
it  is  an  emotional  fabric,  a  vast  artistic  canvas  shot 
through  with  the  forms  and  colors  of  beauty,  a 
poem  surcharged  with  delicate  sentiment  and  majes- 
tic passion,  a  sublime  symphony  of  music  rolling 
through  the  ages;  and  once  more  it  is  equally  a 
mighty  act,  a  stream  of  volitional  energy  flowing 
through  all  things  and  embodying  itself  in  definite 

34 


RELATION   OF   GOD  TO  THE   WORLD  35 

deeds.  The  world  of  nature  is  thus  a  manifestation 
of  the  thoughts  God  is  thinking,  of  the  emotions 
he  is  feeling,  and  of  the  deeds  he  is  doing ;  it  is  his 
own  employment  and  enjoyment.  It  is  the  pure 
product  of  his  own  being ;  but  this  is  not  the  same  as 
saying  that  it  was  "created  out  of  nothing,"  a 
meaningless  phrase  that  has  no  basis  in  Scripture, 
science  or  philosophy.  The  world  is  the  product 
of  God's  own  activity,  the  expression  of  his  own 
thought  and  will,  and  beyond  this  ultimate  fact  we 
cannot  go. 

II.  Two  leading  views  are  entertained  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  world  in  its  relation  to  God.  The 
first  is  dualism,  which  holds  the  common  traditional 
view  that  matter  is  an  extended  insensate  substance, 
of  a  different  nature  from  mind,  external  to  mind, 
and  acting  under  necessary  mechanical  laws.  This 
extended  insensate  substance  with  its  mechanical 
laws  was  created  in  the  beginning  by  God;  and 
thus  nature  was  set  up  and  set  agoing  as  a  vast 
machine  external  to  God,  a  huge  mass  or  lump  that 
lies  outside  of  him  and  operates  according  to  its  own 
laws,  though  still  under  his  control.  This  machine 
is  also  external  to  human  souls  and  all  finite  spirits, 
and  is  in  a  subordinate  degree  subject  to  human 
control.  This  view  of  nature  works  badly  when 
introduced  into  theology.    It  tends  towards  deism. 


36  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

which  puts  God  outside  of  his  world  so  that  he 
stands  aloof  from  it  and  keeps  his  hands  off  it; 
and  it  interposes  between  God  and  man  a  mechan- 
ical system  that  threatens  to  obstruct  their  mutual 
relations  and  fellowship.  It  was  this  dualistic  view 
of  the  world  that  enabled  Hume  to  deal  the  Christian 
religion  such  a  deep  wound  with  his  objection  to 
miracles  as  a  stoppage  of  the  machine  of  nature 
which  no  amount  of  human  evidence  could  prove. 
III.  The  other  view  of  nature  is  that  of  idealism, 
which  has  long  prevailed  in  the  field  of  philosophy 
and  is  now  invading  theology,  a  view  that  was  held 
by  Augustine  and  Calvin  and  Jonathan  Edwards, 
and  is  now  held  by  such  leading  theologians  as 
President  Strong  in  this  country  and  Prof.  Rashdall 
in  England.  According  to  this  view,  nature  itself 
is  a  spiritual  system,  an  immediate  manifestation  of 
the  thought  and  feeling  and  will  of  God.  Nature 
as  we  know  it  is  the  experience  we  have  as  our 
minds  react  on  God's  mind,  or  as  his  Spirit  environs 
and  operates  upon  our  spirits.  It  is  therefore  not 
an  extended  and  insensate  substance  and  is  nothing 
apart  from  God,  but  is  his  own  life  as  he  thinks  and 
feels  and  wills  the  world.  The  world  sustains 
somewhat  the  same  relation  to  him  as  our  thoughts 
and  emotions  and  purposes  do  to  our  own  minds 
and  hearts,  as  the  poet's  vision  does  to  his  imagi- 


RELATION   OF   GOD  TO   THE   WORLD  37 

nation  and  the  musician's  song  to  his  soul.  The 
world  is  therefore  not  a  machine  external  to  God, 
but  is  a  spiritual  state  or  system  immanent  in  God 
and  manifesting  itself  to  5nite  spirits  through  the 
causal  relations  it  sustains  to  them.  The  physical 
energies  or  laws  of  the  world  are  not  mechanical 
forces  of  a  non-spiritual  nature,  but  are  the  ways  in 
which  the  will  of  God  regularly  works  in  the  light 
of  his  wisdom.  The  laws  of  nature  are  thus  simply 
the  habits  of  God,  and  are  constantly  subject  to 
and  are  the  expression  of  his  wisdom  and  will. 
This  sweeps  away  the  external  mechanical  system 
that  has  been  so  troublesome  and  dangerous  in 
theology  and  in  Christian  experience,  and  ushers  us 
into  the  immediate  presence  of  "him  with  whom  we 
have  to  do." 

IV.  This  view  furnishes  a  congenial  system  for 
providence  and  for  the  supernatural.  It  interposes 
no  intractable  mechanism  between  us  and  God,  in 
which  we  are  imprisoned  and  through  which  God 
must  thrust  his  hand  to  reach  us,  but  it  wraps  us 
around  with  his  presence  and  breath  and  makes 
every  atom  and  activity  of  nature  his  immediate 
free  act.  It  is  not  denied  that  God  can  manage 
any  machine  he  may  make,  but  we  feel  closer  to  him 
and  feel  that  he  is  closer  to  us  without  any  such 
dead  mass  or  lump  lying  between.     God  is  imraa- 


38  THE  BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

nent  in  the  world,  and  this  pours  his  presence  into 
every  atom,  or  rather  makes  the  whole  world  the 
immediate  expression  of  his  presence  and  purpose 
and  power;  then  his  providence  does  not  simply 
touch  the  world  at  points  or  in  spots,  but  fills  and 
animates  it  throughout.  In  a  similar  way  a  spiritual 
view  of  the  world  makes  room  for  the  supernatural, 
which  is  God's  extraordinary  way  of  working  and 
is  just  as  easy  and  natural  to  him  as  his  ordinary 
way  and  is  only  a  variation  of  his  regular  habit. 
As  nature  is  plastic  to  his  every  thought,  being  only 
the  expression  of  his  thought  and  will,  he  needs 
to  stop  no  rigid  machine  or  break  or  bend  no 
inviolable  law  to  accomplish  some  special  purpose, 
but  only  needs  to  think  and  will  it.  The  question 
of  any  particular  miracle  is  one  of  historical  evi- 
dence, but  this  view  furnishes  a  plastic  spiritual 
framework  for  such  an  event,  and  thus  removes 
the  philosophical  objection  to  Lhe  supernatural  that 
has  played  so  large  a  part  in  attempting  to  discredit 
the  Bible  miracles.  This  spiritual  view  of  the  world 
is  reflected  in  Scriptures,  which  as  an  Oriental 
book  is  idealistic  in  its  modes  of  thought  and 
expression,  and  is  simply  an  exposition  of  the  grand 
truth  that  "in  him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being." 

V.    The  human  soul  is  of  a  different  origin  and 


RELATION   OF  GOD  TO  THE   WORLD  39 

nature  from  that  of  the  impersonal  world.  It  is 
the  offspring  of  God  and  is  spirit  endowed  with 
personality.  It  is  not  therefore  a  phenomenon  of 
God,  as  nature  is,  but  it  is  reality  in  itself,  having 
existence  separate  from  God  and  a  life  that  runs 
parallel  with  his.  It  is  a  germinal  center  of  life, 
thought,  sensibility  and  will,  that  develops  into 
full-blown  personality  and  lives  a  free  moral  life, 
ever  rising  into  higher  and  fuller  fellowship  with 
God,  or,  through  its  own  sin,  falling  farther  away 
from  him.  God  is  thus  the  Father  of  man,  and 
man  is  the  child  of  God,  and  this  is  the  fundamental 
relation  that  binds  the  two  together.  The  unfolding 
of  this  relation  into  its  possibilities  of  higher  life  or 
deeper  fall  constitutes  the  development  and  glory 
and  tragedy  of  our  human  world,  and  projects 
itself  into  the  world  to  come.* 

*For  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  subject  of  this  chapter, 
see  The  World  a  Spiritual  System,  Chapter  IX. 


CHAPTER  VII 


MAN 


The  two  fundamental  factors  in  religion  are 
God  and  man:  and  our  view  of  man  is  as  deter- 
minative of  our  theology  as  our  view  of  God. 

I.  Man  bears  the  image  of  God  and  is  his 
child.  As  the  top  of  the  creation  so  far  as  we  know 
it,  he  stands  closest  to  the  Creator  and  is  likest  to 
him  in  faculty  and  power.  He  is  endowed  with 
personality,  and  this  fact  at  once  lifts  him  above 
the  level  of  nature  into  the  rank  of  intellectual  and 
moral  beings,  wearing  the  high  crown  of  responsi- 
bility and  character.  The  constitution  of  his  soul 
is  patterned  after  that  of  his  Maker  as  this  is  imaged 
in  the  work  of  his  hands.  The  world  reflects  the 
three  primary  powers  of  intellect,  sensibility  and 
will  as  constituting  the  fundamental  nature  of  God, 
and  these  same  faculties  unfold  in  man.  His  mind 
grasps  the  world  and  reads  it  as  a  book,  his  sensi- 
bilities are  swept  with  all  rich  and  various  emotion, 
and  his  will  clothes  him  with  a  degree  of  sover- 
eignty over  himself  and  over  the  world.     These 

40 


MAN  41 

powers  combine  into  personality,  of  which  con- 
science in  the  highest  office  and  crown,  resulting 
in  a  character  that  is  either  the  glory  or  the  shame  of 
man.  Standing  in  the  center  of  creation  man 
mounts  into  dominion  over  nature,  putting  his  foot 
on  the  earth,  seizing  the  stars  in  his  hand,  and 
shooting  his  lines  of  thought  and  purpose  out 
through  the  universe.  He  is  thus  a  reduced  copy 
of  God  and  parallels  him  at  every  point.  This 
divine  sonship  of  man  makes  him  a  wonder  to 
himself  and  leads  us  to  exclaim  with  Shakespeare, 
"What  a  piece  of  work  is  man !  How  noble  in 
reason !  How  infinite  in  faculty !  in  action  how  like 
an  angel !  in  apprehension  how  like  a  god  1"  and  with 
the  Psalmist,  "Thou  hast  made  him  but  little  lower 
than  God,  and  crownest  him  with  glory  and  honor." 
This  high  view  of  man  is  one  of  the  central  columns 
of  religion,  without  which  it  would  fall  into  ruin. 
Low  views  of  man  invariably  throw  religion  into 
the  dust. 

n.  The  divine  origin  of  man  still  leaves  open 
the  method  of  his  creation.  The  Scripture  speaks 
in  general  terms,  describing  the  end  and  result  of 
the  process,  but  leaving  room  for  any  length  of 
time  and  number  of  links  in  the  process  itself. 
The  modern  view  generally  accepted  by  both  scien- 
tists and  theologians  is  that  man  came  into  being 


42  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF    CHRISTIANITY 

through  a  process  of  evolution.  His  body  is 
related  point  by  point  to  the  forms  next  beneath 
him  in  the  animal  world,  and  the  converging  lines 
of  evidence  that  genetically  connect  his  body  with 
the  long  ascent  of  life  are  strong.  Differences  of 
view  as  to  the  method  of  this  ascent  divide  scientific 
men,  but  they  are  practically  unanimous  as  to  the 
ascent  itself.  It  takes  little  thought  or  insight  to 
see  that  this  method  of  developing  the  human  body 
does  not  in  the  least  interfere  with  the  divine 
presence  in  the  process.  Evolution  is  simply  God's 
way  of  doing  things,  and  it  no  more  excludes  him 
from  the  development  of  a  race  than  it  does  from 
the  growth  of  an  individual  animal  or  man.  And 
there  is  no  special  difficulty  in  thinking  that  man's 
soul  was  derived  through  the  same  process.  God 
is  in  it  all,  and  the  process  and  the  result  are  not  less 
his  because  he  chose  to  act  through  long  time  and 
slow  stages  rather  than  through  a  single  short  step. 
As  President  Strong  says,  "Though  man  came 
through  the  brute,  he  did  not  come  from  the  brute, 
but  from  God."  Man's  divine  heredity  is  untouched 
by  this  process,  and  it  is  still  true  in  the  light  of 
modern  knowledge  that  "the  Lord  God  formed  man 
of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his 
nostrils  the  breath  of  life ;  and  man  became  a  living 
soul." 


MAN  43 

III.  The  question  of  the  original  condition  of 
man  is  a  difficult  one.  Human  history  does  not  go 
back  so  far,  and  science  can  afford  little  trustworthy 
light  by  attempting  to  project  its  imagination  back 
to  primitive  man.  The  Scripture  represents  man  as 
coming  from  the  hand  of  God  in  a  state  of  innocence 
from  which  he  fell  by  his  own  act.  All  consider- 
ations confirm  this  view.  We  cannot  think  of  a  holy 
God  creating  a  sinful  child,  or  starting  a  race 
loaded  down  with  an  evil  heredity.  In  so  far  as 
man  was  connected  with  the  animal  race,  he  was 
not  contaminated  with  evil,  for  there  is  no  moral  evil 
in  the  animal  world,  which  lies  below  the  moral 
level.  Nevertheless,  man  started  off  with  animal 
powers  and  passions  which  called  for  moral  control, 
and  this  was  just  the  point  where  he  fell.  He  was 
innocent  as  he  came  into  being  with  the  light  of 
reason  and  conscience,  however  dimly  this  light 
may  have  glimmered  in  his  soul.  He  stood  upright 
on  his  feet  with  the  power  of  knowing  and  doing 
the  right ;  but  when  the  pressure  of  evil  suggestion 
was  put  upon  his  senses  he  yielded  and  fell.  "God 
made  man  upright ;  but  they  have  sought  out  many 
inventions." 

IV.  Man  is  a  growth.  The  first  man  was  as 
essentially  human  as  is  the  man  of  to-day  or  as  the 
greatest  man  that  ever  lived ;  but  through  how  long 


44  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

an  education  has  man  passed,  how  much  has  he 
grown?  He  did  not  start  with  our  knowledge  and 
civilization:  he  was  endowed  only  with  the  possi- 
bility of  these  and  had  to  work  them  out  for  himself. 
God  made  man  as  an  outline  sketch,  as  a  germ  or 
bundle  of  latent  powers,  and  left  him  to  fill  out  the 
sketch,  to  develop  the  germ  and  unfold  himself 
into  the  blossom  of  his  glorious  achievements.  If 
we  wonder  why  God  did  not  set  man  up  with  a  full 
outfit  of  knowledge  and  civilization,  morals  and 
religion,  the  answer  is  that  this  would  have  robbed 
him  of  his  greatest  opportunity  and  kept  him  in 
childhood.  Besides,  character,  the  crown  of  the 
human  soul,  cannot  be  created  and  put  on  from 
without,  but  must  grow  up  within  as  the  product  of 
experience.  The  centuries  are  the  milestones  of 
man's  progress  as  he  has  fought  his  way  forward 
and  climbed  upward  to  his  present  summit  of  attain- 
ment. The  Gospel  itself  was  brought  in  at  the  point 
where  man  could  use  it  as  the  means  of  his  highest 
victory. 

V.  The  sonship  of  man  implies  the  Fatherhood 
of  God.  The  two  states  are  complementary  and 
necessarily  go  together.  Man  is  son  because  God  is 
Father.  Fatherhood  is  an  eternal  nature  rooted 
in  the  divine  constitution,  and  when  God  was  moved 
to  create  he  could  not  help  but  express  his  Father- 


MAN  45 

hood.  The  divine  Fatherhood  is  therefore  as  uni- 
versal as  human  sonship.  As  all  men  are  sons,  so 
God  is  the  Father  of  all  men.  It  is  true  there  is 
a  distinction  at  this  point  among  men  in  that  all  of 
them  are  by  nature  in  a  state  of  sinful  rebellion,  and 
some  of  them  refuse  to  come  out  of  this  state  into 
restored  fellowship  with  the  Father.  This  wilful 
alienation  does  not  destroy  sonship,  but  it  does 
break  off  or  impair  its  conscious  exercise.  It  is  the 
sonship  of  man  that  draws  out  the  Father's  love 
and  sacrifice  for  redemption  in  the  gift  of  his  Son. 
Salvation  itself  is  the  development  of  man's  sonship 
into  the  fulness  of  its  growth  and  fruitage  in  a 
perfected  divine  image  and  blessed  service  and 
glorious  attainment.  It  is  this  sonship,  also,  that 
insures  a  final  immortality  of  fellowship  with  the 
Father.  Though  man  may  have  grown  as  a  fine 
blossom  on  an  animal  stem,  yet  as  a  gardener  snips 
off  the  blossom  and  takes  it  into  his  home  and  leaves 
the  stem  in  the  ground  so  God  may  leave  the  animal 
stem  to  perish  but  takes  his  human  blossom  into 
his  own  bosom. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


SIN 


When  we  pass  from  the  consideration  of  God 
to  a  view  of  the  world  he  has  created  we  are  at 
once  confronted  with  an  unexpected  and  terrible 
fact:  sin.  We  would  expect  to  find  a  fair  world 
of  pure  harmony  and  holiness ;  but  we  find 
one  all  torn  with  discord  and  stained  with  evil. 
This  staggering-  fact  is  the  mystery  of  the  world, 
and  out  of  it  emerge  some  of  the  deepest  problems 
of  theology. 

I.  The  origin  of  sin  is  the  first  difficulty.  This 
difficulty  relates  to  both  God  and  man.  Why  and 
how  God  permitted  the  entrance  of  sin  into  his  pure 
world  is  a  question  that  has  ever  puzzled  the  human 
mind.  We  would  have  thought  that  when  evil  came 
knocking  for  admittance  into  the  universe  God's 
shoulder  would  have  been  against  the  gate  to  pre- 
vent the  dreadful  thing  from  pushing  through;  but 
the  gate  was  left  free  to  swing  on  its  hinges,  and  evil 
came  in.  The  only  light  we  get  at  this  point  is  in 
the  theory  that  this  gate  was  the  creature's  own  free 

46 


SIN  47 

will  and  that  to  lock  this  gate  would  have  been  to 
destroy  moral  free  agency  and  responsibility.  God 
had  to  respect  the  creature's  freedom  even  in  the 
act  of  committing  the  first  sin  and  ushering  all  its 
woe  into  the  world.  There  is  also  a  psychological 
puzzle  on  the  side  of  the  creature  in  its  fall.  We 
believe  that  God  must  have  created  the  first  moral 
spirits  with  a  sinless  nature:  how  did  any  sinful 
thought,  impulse  or  tendency  ever  arise  in  that  sin- 
less nature?  How  did  the  first  thistle  ever  come  to 
bud  on  the  rosebush  of  a  pure  soul?  Evil  was  in 
the  universe  before  this  world  fell  fresh  from  the 
hand  of  God :  how  did  it  get  started  ?  And  when 
the  first  tempter  came  to  this  world,  how  did  he  find 
in  unfallen  man  any  congenial  soil  in  which  to  sow 
the  seeds  of  evil?  All  these  questions  run  beyond 
our  ken,  drop  into  depths  below  our  plummets,  and 
we  can  only  rest  on  the  general  faith  and  fact: 
"Shall  not  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right?" 

II.  The  nature  of  sin  is  another  problem.  There 
are  explanations  of  sin  that  explain  it  away.  All 
pantheistic  theories  of  the  world  resolve  it  into  the 
necessary  activities  and  unfoldings  of  the  one  Abso- 
lute Being,  and  thus  it  loses  all  moral  qualities. 
This  view  obliterates  the  distinction  between  good 
and  evil  and  reduces  all  things  to  mechanical 
necessity.    The  views    that    sin    is    the    necessary 


48  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

condition  and  outcome  of  our  finiteness,  or  of  our 
sensuous  nature,  or  of  our  evolution  from  lower 
forms,  are  also  fatalistic  in  their  nature  and  must  be 
dismissed.  When  freed  from  the  element  of  neces- 
sity they  may  contain  elements  of  truth,  but  they 
are  not  the  truth.  The  best  view  of  sin  is  that  it  is 
selfishness.  It  is  the  choice  of  the  self  as  the 
supreme  end,  which  thus  rebels  against  all  higher 
authority  and  other  interests;  it  converts  the  soul 
into  a  sponge,  absorbing  everything  into  itself, 
instead  of  leaving  it  a  fountain,  flinging  forth  its 
streams  upon  others.  Prof.  Samuel  Harris  resolves 
sin  into  four  forms  of  selfishness :  self-sufficiency, 
instead  of  faith;  self-will,  instead  of  submission; 
self-seeking,  instead  of  benevolence;  and  self- 
righteousness,  instead  of  humility  and  reverence. 
It  thus  erects  itself  in  rebellion  against  God  and 
man  at  every  point  of  contact.  Of  course  there  is  a 
proper  and  necessary  self-respect  and  self-love,  and 
thus  sin  is  the  perversion  of  a  virtue ;  but  it  is  a  per- 
version, and  not  the  virtue  itself.  Every  form  of 
sin  is  seen  to  be  a  form  of  selfishness.  Lying 
perverts  the  truth  in  the  interest  of  self,  sensuality 
perverts  appetite  for  its  own  selfish  indulgence,  and 
avarice,  ambition,  vanity,  and  pride,  are  all  the 
self  absorbing  the  world.  Even  the  more  spiritual 
sins   of  unbelief  and   self-righteousness  are   affir- 


SIN  49 

mations  of  the  self  against  the  will  and  righteous- 
ness of  God.  Truth  itself  may  be  sought  as  a 
personal  triumph  and  thereby  becomes  selfishness. 
Thus  all  forms  of  evil  run  down  into  selfishness  as 
the  taproot  of  sin. 

III.  The  heredity  of  sin  is  another  grave  prob- 
lem. Once  the  race  had  become  infected  with  this 
virus  it  propagated  itself  down  through  the  genera- 
tions and  breathes  its  blight  upon  every  soul.  It 
has  always  appeared  to  be  a  blinding  blow  to  faith 
in  the  justice  of  God  that  human  beings  should  be 
born  with  a  nature  or  disposition  that  is  sure  to 
sprout  into  evil.  Our  relief  at  this  point  lies  in  the 
direction  of  the  solidarity  of  the  race,  with  its  at- 
tendant good.  Human  beings  are  not  independent 
spirits  but  units  in  a  social  organism,  in  both  the 
good  and  the  evil  of  which  they  must  share. 
Through  this  channel  they  inherit  the  transmitted 
good  of  ancestors.  The  battles  of  the  past  thus 
become  their  blessings,  the  victories  of  other  gener- 
ations become  their  virtues.  It  is  thus  the  race  gets 
forward  and  climbs  upward  and  accumulates  a 
splendid  store  of  capital.  The  price  that  must  be 
paid  for  this  blessing  is  its  obverse  in  the  load  of 
evil  the  stream  of  heredity  also  pours  down  into 
posterity.  But  there  are  two  modifications  or  checks 
to  this  obverse  side.  Evil  is  in  a  measure  limited 
4 


50  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

to  the  third  and  fourth  generation,  it  runs  out  or 
kills  itself  off,  whereas  good  is  unlimited  and  runs 
on  cumulatively  for  "a  thousand  generations";  and 
heredity  does  not  bind  the  soul  in  fatalism,  but  still 
leaves  it  with  a  measure  of  freedom  so  that  no  soul 
is  condemned  and  lost  for  the  sins  of  others  but  only 
for  its  own  sins. 

IV.  The  universality  of  sin  is  one  of  its  most 
appalling  aspects  and  problems.  It  shows  its  viru- 
lent presence  and  power  in  all  ages,  races,  lands, 
and  degrees  of  civilization  and  culture.  It  is  the  uni- 
versal soil  out  of  which  grow  all  the  wars,  strifes, 
bloodshed,  hatreds,  vices  and  sorrows  of  the  world. 
Every  sincere  and  sane  soul  is  conscious  of  it. 
Huxley  saw  the  course  of  human  history  as  an 
expanse  of  "infinite  wickedness,"  and  said,  "The 
best  men  of  the  best  epochs  are  simply  those  who 
make  the  fewest  blunders  and  commit  the  fewest 
sins."  Goethe  said,  "I  see  no  fault  committed 
which  I  too  might  not  have  committed,"  and  Emer- 
son said  that  to  understand  any  crime  he  had  only 
to  look  into  his  own  heart.  All  human  literature  is 
powerful  testimony  to  universal  human  sin.  The 
purest  motives  are  mixed  with  some  tincture  of  evil. 
The  holier  one  grows  in  his  heart  and  life,  the  more 
sensitive  he  becomes  to  his  remaining  fault  and 
unworthiness.     This  is  the  meaning  of  the  doctrine 


of  "total  depravity":  not  that  any  soul  is  totally 
depraved,  but  there  is  some  mixture  of  evil  in  its 
purest  states  and  moments. 

V.  The  deserts  of  sin  press  its  sharp  point  of 
guilt  down  into  every  soul  and  make  sure  its  punish- 
ment. Every  sinner  feels  his  guilt,  and  his  own 
heart  condemns  him.  The  universal  human  heart 
cries  out  in  the  anguish  of  its  guilt  and  judgment. 
This  judgment  comes  in  this  world  in  the  retribu- 
tive consequences  that  follow  hard  on  the  steps  of 
sin.  It  lights  up  this  world  with  a  red  glare  of 
punishment  in  physical,  civil,  social,  mental,  and 
moral  retribution,  and  runs  on  into  the  judgment  of 
the  next.  Retribution  has  its  roots  in  the  nature  of 
God  and  must  work  its  way  out  in  all  the  con- 
sequences of  evil.  This  would  not  be  a  decent 
world  without  it,  and  were  it  annulled  the  world 
would  rot  in  its  own  corruption. 

VI.  Yet  sin  is  a  curable  disease,  and  over  against 
man's  sin  is  set  God's  redemption.  While  God 
permitted  sin  to  come  into  the  world  he  is  doing  all 
he  can  to  put  it  out  of  the  world.  In  this  work  he 
is  necessarily  limited  by  the  freedom  of  the  human 
will,  but  within  these  bounds  he  is  exerting  all 
power  in  heaven  and  on  earth  to  overcome  and 
cleanse  and  cure  human  sin.  This  is  one  meaning 
of  the  punishment  inflicted  on  sin  in  this  world. 


52  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

which  is  primarily  retributive  and  secondarily  re- 
formative and  preventive.  The  Spirit  of  God  is 
ever  striving  with  man  through  his  reason  and  con- 
science to  bring  him  to  repentance  and  pardon  and 
purity.  This  also  is  the  whole  purpose  of  redemp- 
tion, especially  as  it  comes  to  its  culmination  in 
the  Cross  of  Calvary,  which  is  the  supreme  battle- 
field where  God  and  sin  met  in  the  clash  and  shock 
of  deadly  conflict.  Fools  mock  at  sin,  but  the 
Son  of  God  wept  over  it  and  sweat  drops  of 
blood  to  wash  it  away.  So  the  black  storm-cloud 
of  human  sin  is  lighted  up  and  transfigured  with 
the  rainbow  of  divine  Sacrifice,  and  shines  with 
promise  to  the  world.^ 

^  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  whole  Problem  of  Evil, 
see  The  World  a  Spiritual  System,  Chapter  X,  Section  3. 


CHAPTER  IX 

NEED    OF    THE    INCARNATION 

We  have  now  reached  a  point  where  the  Father 
is  confronted  with  a  rebelHous  world.  Is  not  this 
ground  enough  for  reHgion?  Is  not  a  purely 
theistic  faith  sufficient  salvation  and  worship? 

I.  The  answer  written  broadly  across  all  history 
is  in  the  negative.  The  heathen  religions,  whether 
in  their  lowest  degraded  forms  or  in  the  purer  forms 
of  Greece  and  Rome,  failed  to  cleanse  the  world 
and  ended  in  degradation  deeper  still.  Mohammed- 
anism is  a  pure  and  lofty  monotheism  that  has 
accomplished  much  that  appeals  to  our  respect,  but  it 
is  a  relentless  cold  faith,  having  closer  kinship  with 
a  despot's  sword  than  with  a  Father's  sympathy, 
and  it  has  hopelessly  failed  to  meet  the  religious 
needs  of  man.  It  can  create  despotism  and  a 
desert,  but  not  a  redeemed  world.  Judaism  shows 
us  what  monotheism  can  do  at  its  best,  and  it  did 
serve  a  temporary  preparatory  purpose  in  the  devel- 
opment of  religion.  But  it  became  a  husk  out 
of  which  the  corn  had  been  emptied,  and  is  there 

53 


54  THE  BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

in  the  religious  world  to-day  a  more  pathetic 
spectacle  than  its  decadent  impotence?  And  the 
experiment  of  monotheism  has  been  repeatedly 
tried  within  Christianity  itself.  Unitarianism  has 
risen  time  and  again  and  attempted  to  gain  a  foot- 
hold as  a  form  of  the  Christian  faith.  It  has  its 
organization  and  has  had  and  still  has  men  of  the 
highest  culture  among  its  adherents.  Yet  it  has 
never  attained  to  any  considerable  degree  of  accept- 
ance and  power,  and  is  an  almost  negligible  quan- 
tity in  the  religious  world  to-day.  The  Christian 
Church  in  all  its  great  historic  forms  has  ever 
repudiated  it  as  denying  the  essential  fact  and  faith 
of  Christianity.  Long  ages  of  human  experience 
prove  that  theism  is  not  religion  enough  for  the 
needs  of  the  human  heart  and  of  the  world. 

II.  But  theism  itself  contains  the  seeds  and 
roots  of  Christianity.  Christianity  is  not  a  for- 
eign importation  to  the  world  of  theistic  faith 
and  hope,  but  a  further  evolution.  One  truth 
always  leads  on  to  another,  and  thus  all  truths  are 
linked  together.  When  once  we  get  hold  of  a  true 
logical  thread,  if  we  pull  it  long  enough  it  will 
unravel  the  whole  web  of  the  world.  There  are 
many  striking  instances  of  how  one  truth  has  thus 
been  unfolded  into  immense  and  splendid  con- 
sequences.    Franklin  put  his  kite  up  into  a  storm- 


NEED   OF  THE   INCARNATION  55 

cloud  and  drew  down  a  spark :  men  continued  to 
pull  on  that  thread  and  it  unraveled  into  all  the 
modern  wonders  of  electricity.  In  a  similar  way 
evolution  unfolded  in  many  sciences,  and  democ- 
racy is  transforming  the  governments  of  the 
world.  Theism  is  such  a  germinal  truth  and  con- 
tains within  itself  all  possible  truth,  power  and 
progress.  Follow  it  out  to  its  logical  consequences 
and  it  will  lead  us  straight  to  Christ  and  Chris- 
tianity. This  was  the  argument  of  Christ  himself. 
"Ye  believe  in  God,"  he  said  to  his  troubled  and 
doubting  disciples;  "believe  also  in  me."  As 
much  as  to  say:  "Of  course  you  believe  in  God: 
then  believe  also  in  me.  If  you  believe  in  God, 
you  must  also  believe  in  me."  Christ  is  the  logical 
completion  of  God.  Follow  God  and  we  shall 
come  to  Christ.  God  is  root  and  Christ  is  fruit. 
III.  For  what  kind  of  a  God  must  we  believe 
in?  Only  in  a  righteous  and  good  God,  a  Father. 
Never  will  our  faith  in  God  reach  a  worthy  and 
satisfying  form  until  we  know  him  as  Father. 
All  the  instincts,  yearning  and  practical  demands 
of  our  hearts  and  lives  reach  up  after  and  find  a 
Father,  and  in  his  bosom  only  will  we  rest.  Now 
what  will  a  true  Father  do  for  his  lost  children  in 
this  world?  He  will  come  to  them.  We  cannot 
believe  that  the  Father  will  leave  his  children  like 


56  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

infants  crying  in  the  night  and  with  no  language 
but  a  cry.  All  earth's  sin  and  sorrow  will  come  up 
to  his  heart  and  pull  upon  his  mercy  and  love  until 
he  hears  and  hastens  to  the  scene.  For  a  father 
is  not  content  to  send  officers  or  hired  agents  to  his 
lost  children:  he  will  go  himself  or  send  his  own 
son  to  find  and  win  and  lead  them  back  to  his 
heart  and  home.  If  an  earthly  father  will  do  this 
for  his  human  children,  how  surely  will  our  heav- 
enly Father  do  the  same  and  more  for  us.  This 
is  the  great  need  in  the  world  and  principle  in  the 
heart  of  God  that  demanded  and  issued  in  the 
Incarnation.  God  himself  came  to  the  world  in 
the  person  of  his  own  Son.  He  threw  off  the  veil 
behind  which  his  face  had  been  hidden  from  men 
and  appeared  in  the  flesh  so  that  they  could  behold 
his  glory,  full  of  grace  and  truth.  So  Christ  is  in 
the  world  as  the  express  image  and  brightness 
of  God,  to  show  us  his  face  and  let  us  feel  the 
warmth  of  his  heart  and  extend  to  us  the  help  of 
his  hand.  The  distance  and  coldness  of  a  purely 
monotheistic  God  are  thus  removed,  and  he  is 
brought  near  and  made  a  warm  and  loving  person 
and  presence. 

IV.  And  what  will  the  Father  in  the  person  of 
his  Son  do  when  he  is  in  the  world  ?  He  will  not 
be  here  as  a  mere  spectator  of  its  sin  and  misery. 


NEED  OF   THE   INCARNATION  57 

but  will  lay  hold  of  the  world  with  all  his  power  of 
hand  and  heart  to  roll  it  out  of  the  ditch  of  sin 
into  the  light  and  love  and  fellowship  of  God. 
This  means  that  he  will  come  as  a  Saviour  and 
work  out  the  whole  process  of  the  world's  redemp- 
tion. He  will  come  as  a  Teacher,  who  will 
kindle  a  great  spiritual  light  so  that  men  can  clear- 
ly see  the  way  of  life.  He  will  himself  be  a 
perfect  Pattern  of  what  men  should  be,  sinless  in 
his  soul  and  full  of  all  truth  and  grace,  and  he  will 
himself  take  every  step  in  the  path  of  duty  and 
service  that  he  would  have  men  take.  But  he  will 
go  much  deeper  than  this  in  his  work:  he  will 
gain  the  sympathy  of  men  so  as  to  lead  them  into 
faith  in  and  fellowship  with  himself,  bring  them  to 
a  sense  of  their  sin,  and  show  them  the  mercy  of 
the  Father;  and  deeper  still  he  will  bear  their 
sin  as  the  great  Sacrifice  and  atone  for  its  guilt, 
laying  down  his  own  life  for  the  life  of  the  world. 
The  processes  of  salvation  that  are  illustrated  in 
some  degree  in  every  case  in  which  one  soul 
saves  or  helps  to  save  another,  will  come  to  their 
supremest  expression  and  power  in  the  Son  of 
God,  and  his  own  blood  will  be  the  price  of  the 
world's  redemption. 

The    Incarnation    is    thus    seen    to   be,    not    an 
arbitrary    and    improbable    doctrine,    difficult    to 


58  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

prove  and  hard  to  believe,  but  a  natural  and  logical 
consequence  of  theism.  All  the  arguments  that 
lead  us  to  believe  in  God  lead  us  on  to  believe  in 
Christ.  We  are  not  introducing  any  new  principle 
or  taking  an  illogical  step  in  passing  from  God  to 
Christ,  but  are  just  following  the  same  solid  way 
that  leads  up  to  God.  God  is  not  complete  with- 
out Christ.  The  Incarnation  is  the  logical  conse- 
quence of  a  lost  world.  This  is  the  tremendous 
background  of  Christianity  that  raises  an  immense 
presumption  in  its  favor  at  every  point.  It  is  the 
background  of  rationality  and  purpose  that  renders 
difficult  truths  easy  of  proof,  and  Christianity 
starts  with  this  advantage.  But  we  must  now  test 
this  presumption  by  the  facts. 


CHAPTER  X 


THE    BIBLE 


At  this  point  in  our  line  of  thought  we  may 
consider  two  of  the  means  by  which  the  Incar- 
nation is  manifested — the  Bible  and  miracles. 

I.  The  Bible  is  a  human  book.  It  was  written 
by  human  authors  in  human  language.  Every  line 
and  word  of  it  was  originally  scratched  on  parch- 
ment by  pens  held  in  human  hands.  There  were 
many  of  these  human  authors,  some  of  them 
known  and  others  unknown,  living  in  different 
ages  and  countries  and  writing  in  different 
languages.  In  writing  these  books  they  observed 
the  common  rules  of  grammar  and  rhetoric,  and 
used  the  different  forms  of  literature.  Some  of 
them  wrote  history,  others  poetry,  others  doctrinal 
treatises,  and  still  others  wrote  letters.  In  this 
process  of  writing  they  were  in  normal  psycho- 
logical conditions.  They  were  not  in  a  trance  or 
under  any  influence  that  took  them  out  of 
their  own  proper  consciousness  and  mental  activ- 
ity.      In     at     least     some     instances     they    were 

59 


60  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF    CHRISTIANITY 

unaware  of  any  special  religious  quality  or  value 
in  what  they  were  writing  and  never  dreamed  it 
would  find  its  way  into  the  Bible.  Paul  wrote  to 
Philemon  as  any  one  of  us  would  write  to  a  friend, 
and  it  never  occurred  to  him  he  was  penning  an 
inspired  letter  to  be  put  in  the  New  Testament. 
They  wrote  all  of  these  books  out  of  their  own 
knowledge,  or  out  of  knowledge  acquired  through 
the  use  of  human  means.  The  historians  used 
their  own  memories  and  written  books  and  all 
other  historical  materials.  The  theologians  used 
ordinary  human  logic  in  working  out  their  doc- 
trines and  systems.  The  poets  and  prophets 
wrote  and  spoke  out  of  their  own  imaginations, 
raised  to  a  high  degree  of  power.  All  their 
religious  truth  came  to  them  through  their  own 
experience  and  was  written  out  of  it.  Nothing 
was  conveyed  to  them  as  though  it  had  been 
dropped  upon  them  from  above  out  of  another 
world,  but  everything  grew  up  in  their  own  world. 
Such  mysterious  doctrines  as  the  trinity  and  the 
decrees  of  God  all  had  their  analogies  in  human 
experience.  The  Bible  is  thus  a  human  book 
through  and  through.  It  grew  up  out  of  human 
conditions  and  in  accordance  with  human  proc- 
esses. It  is  full  of  red  human  blood  that  pulses 
in  all  its  arteries  and  veins.     It  everywhere  tastes 


THE  BIBLE  6l 

of  life.  This  human  side  of  the  book  is  a  funda- 
mental element  in  it,  and  is  of  immense  significance 
and  value.  God  could  speak  to  us  only  in  our  own 
language,  and  hence  he  speaks  to  us  in  a  human 
book. 

II.  The  Bible  is  a  growth.  It  was  not  written 
all  at  once,  in  one  age  or  by  one  author,  but  was 
given  "at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners."  It 
is  a  great  national  literature  that  grew  through  the 
ages.  The  documentary  roots  of  its  early  Hebrew 
books  may  go  far  back  into  Egypt  and  Babylon. 
From  Moses,  its  first  writer,  to  John,  who  probably 
wrote  its  closing  page,  its  growth  stretches 
through  something  like  fifteen  hundred  years. 
Through  all  this  long  period  it  maintained  a  con- 
tinuous history  and  development,  adding  book  to 
book  and  doctrine  to  doctrine.  Its  history  is  a 
logical  unfolding  from  the  creation  to  the  call  of 
Abraham,  where  the  general  world  history  was 
narrowed  to  the  point  of  one  person  and  one 
people,  down  to  the  fulness  of  time  when  the  hour 
struck  for  the  Incarnation,  and  then  through  the 
dispersion  of  the  universal  religion  out  over  the 
world.  Its  whole  historical  development  is  thus 
seed,  trunk,  branches,  blossom  and  fruit.  This 
historical  development  is  accompanied  with  a 
corresponding  moral   and   doctrinal   development. 


62  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF    CHRISTIANITY 

It  starts  with  rudimentary  morals  and  germinal 
doctrines.  Private  and  social  practices  were  at 
first  permitted  that  were  in  time  outgrown  and 
pronounced  out  of  date.  The  morals  of  one  age 
became  immoral  in  the  next.  The  slavery  and 
polygamy  of  Moses  were  condemned  and  swept 
away  by  Christ.  Such  doctrines  as  the  trinity, 
divine  Fatherhood,  atonement  and  immortality, 
that  existed  only  as  seeds  or  germs  in  the  Old 
Testament,  in  the  New  blossomed  out  into  their 
glorious  flower  and  fruit.  God  spoke  to  men  in 
clearer  words  with  larger  meanings  only  as  they 
were  able  to  bear  them.  The  light  grew  brighter 
as  their  vision  grew  keener.  The  early  parts  of 
the  Bible  were  primers  and  first  grade  readers  to 
lead  the  chosen  people  on  to  deeper  views  and 
loftier  visions.  Its  first  pages  are  dim  in  many 
doctrines  that  on  its  later  pages  burst  into  radiant 
light.  This  fact  of  the  growth  of  the  Bible  plays 
an  important  part  in  its  interpretation.  It  is  not  all 
of  equal  value,  and  we  must  distinguish  between 
such  parts  as  were  local  and  temporary  and  are 
now  obsolete,  and  such  parts  as  are  universal  and 
permanent. 

III.  The  Bible  is  to  be  studied.  While  its 
larger  meanings  lie  on  its  surface  and  were  plain 
to  its  first  readers  and  are  still  plain  to  us,  yet  it 


THE  BIBLE  63 

is  subject  to  all  the  needs  and  processes  and  laws 
of  human  study.  Its  languages  must  be  translated 
and  interpreted.  This  process  must  be  carried  on 
in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  lexicography  and 
grammar,  just  as  any  other  book  is  interpreted. 
So  also  its  history  and  customs  must  be  investi- 
gated and  reconstructed  so  that  they  will  live  in 
our  imagination,  as  we  reproduce  any  other  history 
and  life.  Its  doctrines  must  be  studied  from  their 
first  germ  to  their  full  blossom  and  final  fruit. 
The  whole  of  this  work  must  be  carried  on  under 
the  strictest,  most  impartial  and  most  thorough 
rules  of  scientific  investigation.  The  sacred  claims 
and  character  of  the  book  cannot  be  permitted  to 
draw  around  it  any  hedge  of  protection  or  throw 
over  it  any  robe  of  privilege  or  favoritism.  It 
cannot  be  put  under  a  glass  case  and  a  warning 
issued  to  scholars  and  investigators  not  to  touch 
this  holy  ark  or  shrine.  It  must  come  out  into  the 
open  and  expose  itself  to  the  most  pitiless  and  even 
hostile  search  and  test.  Every  fact  in  it  must  be 
put  to  the  proof  of  the  strongest  critical  acid  and 
flame;  no  doctrine  in  it  is  so  sacred  that  it  must 
not  go  through  the  fire  of  investigation.  Its  own 
principle  and  bidding  must  be  followed  that  we 
search  all  things  and  hold  fast  only  that  which  is 
true.    This  study  should  not  be  hampered  by  any 


64  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

anti-supernaturalistic  presuppositions,  and  it  should 
be  carried  on  in  a  spirit  of  reverence  and  of  sym- 
pathy with  spiritual  ideals. 

IV.  This  study  of  the  Bible  has  been  going  on 
through  all  the  Christian  centuries,  but  it  has 
assumed  scientific  form  mainly  in  the  last  hundred 
years.  It  has  created  a  vast  literature  and  worked 
out  many  solid  and  illuminating  results.  It  has 
modified  some  traditional  ideas.  It  has  separated 
some  books  into  composite  elements  and  assigned 
some  books  and  parts  of  books  to  other  authors 
and  dates  than  the  traditional  ones.  It  has  thrown 
converging  beams  of  light  on  the  Bible  from  many 
sources  and  sciences,  especially  from  history  and 
archeology.  Many  modified  or  new  interpreta- 
tions of  passages  and  texts,  facts  and  doctrines, 
have  been  developed.  The  whole  book  in  every 
part  and  particle  of  it  has  been  subjected  to 
the  most  searching  criticism.  Many  of  the  more 
radical  new  views  have  failed  to  become  estab- 
lished and  some  of  them  have  passed  away  as 
individual  theories  or  vagaries.  Other  modifica- 
tions have  won  their  way  to  general  acceptance. 
Some  of  these  accepted  modifications  at  first  cre- 
ated anxiety  or  alarm;  but  this  has  largely  passed 
away  as  they  have  been  better  understood.  No 
essential   fact  or  doctrine   of  the  Bible  has  been 


THE  BIBLE  65 

discredited  or  impaired.  The  book  stands  to-day. 
in  the  Hght  of  the  morning  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury on  more  soHd  foundations  as  the  word  of  God, 
we  believe,  than  ever  before.  Thorough  study  has 
not  undermined  it,  but  only  confirmed  it. 

V.  The  Bible  is  a  divine  book.  So  far  all  has 
been  human,  but  now  we  strike  a  divine  element, 
a  distinction  that  separates  it  from  all  other  books 
and  literatures  in  the  world.  It  is  true,  there  is  a 
divine  element  in  other  literatures,  but  the  divine 
element  in  the  Bible  is  unique  and  unapproachable. 
It  is  not  easy  to  separate  and  define  this  divine 
element,  just  as  it  is  not  easy  to  draw  the  dividing 
line  between  the  divine  and  the  human  in  provi- 
dence and  in  our  own  consciousness.  But  it  is 
there  as  a  great  outstanding  fact,  or  as  a  flame  that 
burns  all  the  way  through  it,  or  as  a  relish  that  is 
found  in  all  its  pages.  We  see  this  divinity  in  the 
plan  and  purpose  that  shaped  its  history  and 
unfold  in  the  Bible  from  its  first  to  its  last  page. 
We  see  it  in  the  doctrinal  development  that  pro- 
ceeds from  germ  to  fruit  through  all  its  growth. 
We  see  it  in  its  great  personalities,  its  creative 
geniuses,  statesmen,  leaders,  prophets,  and  poets, 
who  directed  human  history  to  divine  ends  and 
were  mountain  peaks  that  caught  light  from 
heaven.  We  see  it  with  increasing  clearness  in 
5 


66  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

the  Gospels  and  Epistles  where  this  divine  flame 
burns  and  its  light  shines  out  in  purest  splendor. 
We  see  its  supreme  manifestation  and  proof  in 
Him  who  was  the  Light  of  the  world  and  spake  as 
never  man  spake.  This  guidance  led  these  people  in 
a  way  that  is  now  plainly  seen  by  us  to  be  a  divine 
plan  and  purpose;  and  this  inspiration  raised  these 
writers,  prophets  and  poets  to  a  degree  of  illumi- 
nation impossible  to  unaided  human  powers.  The 
Bible  is  earthly  clay  fused  with  heavenly  flame, 
human  flesh  filled  with  divine  spirit.  Its  treasure 
is  in  an  earthen  vessel,  but  its  treasure  is  divine. 
The  breath  of  God  is  blowing  through  this  book: 
nothing  else  will  explain  it. 

This  is  the  book  God  has  given  us  as  a  medium 
and  means  of  his  revelation  of  the  Incarnation  of 
his  Son  and  of  his  salvation.  Every  part  of  it  is 
to  be  properly  appreciated,  its  human  and  its  divine 
elements,  its  growth  and  the  processes  of  its 
study.  In  a  wider  sense  it  is  all  divine,  for  in  all 
its  parts  it  is  just  the  book  God  developed  through 
the  ages  and  gave  us  for  "doctrine,  for  reproof, 
for  correction,   for   instruction   in   righteousness." 


CHAPTER  XI 


MIRACLES 


Miracles  have  ever  been  a  storm-center  of 
Christianity.  They  were  attended  with  disputa- 
tion and  denial  when  they  occurred,  and  con- 
troversy has  ever  since  raged  around  them.  Yet 
beUef  in  them  has  not  been  overthrown,  and  they 
stand  as  a  central  column  in  the  fabric  of  our 
historic  faith. 

I.  The  first  and  fundamental  difficulty  encoun- 
tered by  miracles  is  their  relation  to  natural  law. 
All  advance  in  science  extends  the  area  of  law, 
and  this  process  has  covered  the  universe  and 
shown  that  it  is  a  law-saturated  system,  in  which 
no  atom  ever  gets  out  of  place,  no  star  ever  shoots 
a  forbidden  ray.  Miracles  at  first  sight  look  like 
"a  violation  of  the  laws  of  nature,"  and  such  a 
phrase  was  long  a  theological  definition  of  mir- 
acles, as  it  still  sets  forth  a  popular  conception  of 
them.  The  growth  and  prestige  of  science  have 
forced  an  abandonment  of  this  view  and  have  led 
to  a  reconstruction  of  the  idea  of  the  supernatural. 

67 


68  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

Many  definitions  have  been  given  of  it,  but  the 
general  idea  now  held  is  that  a  miracle  is  an 
event  in  the  physical  world  not  explainable  by 
known  physical  causes,  which  manifests  purpose 
and  is  referred  to  the  divine  will.  Viewed  in 
this  light  a  miracle  escapes  many  of  the  old  objec- 
tions urged  against  it.  The  human  will  itself  can 
cause  events  that  are  analogous  to  miracles.  It 
can  combine  and  direct  physical  forces  to  its  own 
ends,  and  thus  produce  events  in  the  physical 
world  that  nature  itself  would  never  have  caused. 
God  sustains  the  same  relation  to  physical  forces, 
only  his  control  over  them  is  more  intimate  and 
complete;  rather  these  forces  are  simply  his  own 
will  as  directed  by  his  thought,  and  thus  immedi- 
ately express  his  purpose.  He  can  therefore 
combine  and  direct  these  forces  to  work  out  his 
purpose  at  any  point  without  violating  any  law. 
But  these  forces  themselves,  or  what  we  call  the 
laws  of  nature,  are  the  habits  of  God,  and  a  habit 
can  be  modified  when  there  is  a  reason  for  such 
variation.  The  immanence  of  God  in  his  world 
makes  it  pliant  and  plastic  at  every  point  to 
express  his  purpose,  and  thus  the  supernatural  is 
as  natural  to  him  as  the  natural.  This  modern 
philosophic  view  of  the  world  completely  under- 
mines the  old  objection  to  miracles  and  brings  them 


MIRACLES  69 

within  the  curve  of  unbroken  higher  law  and  love. 
II.  The  question  of  the  reality  of  the  Biblical 
miracles  thus  reduces  to  one  of  historic  fact.  This 
is  a  detailed  study  which  cannot  here  be  entered 
upon,  but  there  are  certain  general  considerations 
that  may  be  indicated.  A  vital  matter  in  establish- 
ing a  historic  event  is  its  background  of  purpose. 
Does  it  fit  into  the  general  framework  of  history 
and  fulfil  a  purpose  as  a  key  fits  into  a  lock,  or 
does  it  refuse  to  match  other  events  and  remain  a 
refractory  and  irrational  thing?  This  general 
principle  bears  strongly  on  the  credibility  of  an 
event  and  is  often  decisive  in  itself.  It  is  a  knife 
that  cuts  up  by  the  roots  most  of  the  alleged  mir- 
acles that  have  infested  the  history  of  religion  and 
that  still  occur  in  spurious  forms  of  faith.  But  the 
supernatural  element  in  Christianity  bears  this 
test  in  decisive  triumph.  There  is  a  tremendous 
need  and  call  for  miracle  in  the  world.  Had  it 
kept  in  the  way  of  obedience  and  fellowship  with 
God,  possibly  there  would  never  have  been  any 
interruption  of  the  ordinary  ways  of  God  in  his 
providence.  But  sin — the  true  and  only  "lawless- 
ness"— ^broke  this  harmony  and  separated  man 
from  God,  blinding  his  eyes  and  so  estranging 
him  from  his  Father  that  he  rebels  against  him  at 
every  point.    Was  there  not  need  that  God  should 


yO  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

take  some  special  step  to  reach  fallen  man,  secure 
his  attention  and  regain  his  confidence  and  love? 
This  is  the  background  of  the  Incarnation,  itself 
the  supreme  miracle;  and  this  also  is  the  back- 
ground of  all  the  Biblical  miracles:  they  are  called 
for  and  justified  by  the  fall  of  man  and  the  need 
of  his  redemption.  Sin  has  tangled  up  man's 
relations  with  God  in  such  a  hopeless  knot  that 
only  the  knife  of  a  special  intervention  could  sever 
it  and  straighten  out  its  threads  into  harmony  and 
peace. 

III.  All  the  miracles  in  the  Bible  fit  in  with 
this  general  purpose.  They  are  comparatively 
rare,  intervene  at  the  right  moments,  and  then 
cease.  The  idea  that  the  Bible  swarms  with  mir- 
acles is  a  mistake :  they  are  really  few  in  number, 
even  when  they  are  thickest,  as  in  the  life  of  Jesus. 
Miracles  did  not  drip  from  his  fingers,  but  he  used 
them  sparingly  and  reluctantly.  The  character  of 
these  miracles  also  is  in  keeping  with  their  divine 
origin  and  purpose.  They  are  never  mere  won- 
ders or  spectacular  events,  but  are  dignified  and 
sober.  Jesus  never  played  the  part  of  a  sleight 
of  hand  performer,  and  the  Bible  is  not  a  book 
of  wonders.  What  men  produce  when  they  in- 
vent miracles  is  seen  in  the  apocryphal  lives 
of  Jesus   in  which  the  most   irrational   and   silly 


MIRACLES  71 

things  are  ascribed  to  him,  even  as  a  boy.  The 
miracles  of  Jesus  are  natural  to  him,  in  perfect 
keeping  with  his  character  and  purpose,  and  flow 
from  his  hands  as  smoothly  as  his  gracious  words 
from  his  mouth.  His  miracles  are  essential  parts 
of  his  teaching.  E^ch  miracle  is  wrought  for  a 
definite  purpose,  and  this  purpose  is  illustrative 
of  his  teaching  and  mission.  He  feeds  the  multi- 
tude, not  only  to  appease  their  hunger,  but  also 
to  lead  them  to  the  Bread  of  Life;  and  he  opens 
blind  eyes,  not  only  to  give  sight  to  an  unfortunate 
man,  but  also  to  show  that  he  is  the  Light  of  the 
world.  His  miracles  are  so  interwoven  with  the 
narrative  of  his  life  that  it  is  impossible  to  dissect 
them  out  and  retain  its  general  web:  when  they 
are  removed  the  whole  narrative  is  slashed  to 
pieces.  The  two  great  miracles  by  which  he 
effected  a  unique  entrance  into  and  exit  from  our 
life  are  the  buttresses  upon  which  rest  his  divinity 
and  work,  and  these  will  be  considered  later.  The 
resurrection  in  particular  is  the  central  column 
that  sustains  his  divinity  and  makes  belief  in  all 
his  other  miracles  easy. 

IV.  The  question  whether  the  miracles  of 
Christ  are  essential  to  his  divine  character  and 
mission  and  whether  belief  in  his  miracles  is  essen- 
tial to  Christianity  is  one  that  is  constantly  pressing 


72  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

against  us  and  is  growing  more  urgent.  The 
tendency  to  abandon  miracles  and  hold  to  the 
divine  character  and  work  of  Christ  appears  to  be 
growing.  But  the  Christian  Church  catholic  has 
never  been  moved  by  this  tendency,  and  still  stands 
upon  the  rock  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  which 
carries  with  it  his  other  miracles.  Christ  himself 
unmistakably  claimed  to  have  and  to  exercise 
miraculous  power,  and  we  cannot  reject  this  claim 
and  yet  keep  our  faith  in  him;  and  if  we  take  the 
miracles  out  of  his  life  and  out  of  the  Bible  the 
whole  book  will  be  so  perforated  with  holes  and 
be  rendered  so  meaningless  that  it  could  not  hold 
its  place  in  our  life.  Such  portions  of  the  general 
Christian  community,  as  the  Unitarians,  as  have 
abandoned  miracles  sink  into  an  insignificant 
factor  in  the  religious  faith  and  life  of  the  world. 
Christianity  itself  would  certainly  be  shorn  of  its 
power,  if  it  were  stripped  of  its  supernatural  ele- 
ments, and  be  reduced  to  the  impotence  of  natural 
religion.^ 

*  For  fuller  discussion  of  miracles  from  the  philosophical 
point  of  view,  see  The  World  a  Spiritual  System,  pages 
203,  290-293. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  PERSON   OF   CHRIST 

The  Person  of  Christ  is  the  central  Fact  of 
Christianity  in  which  all  its  significance  is  concen- 
trated and  from  which  all  its  power  issues.  All 
the  problems  of  Christianity  and  religion  meet 
in  him,  and  he  is  the  solution  of  them  all.  The 
outstanding  fact  about  Jesus  Christ  is  that  he 
cannot  be  viewed  simply  as  man  or  purely  as  God, 
but  can  be  construed  and  understood  only  as  a 
union  of  both. 

I.  The  humanity  of  Christ  is  seen  in  his  human 
nature,  consisting  of  a  physical  body  and  a  rational 
soul.  He  was  bom  of  a  human  mother  and  grew 
through  all  the  stages  of  infancy  and  childhood 
into  manhood.  In  his  body  he  was  subject  to  all 
the  conditions,  appetites  and  experiences  of  the 
normal  physical  man.  He  lived  under  the  limita- 
tions of  space  and  time,  and  had  and  used  the 
ordinary  senses  of  men.  He  was  subject  to  hunger 
and  thirst  and  satisfied  them  with  the  same  food 
and   drink   that   other  men   used.    He   slept  and 

73 


74  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

awoke,  grew  weary  and  sought  rest,  shed  tears 
and  smiled  and  swept  the  whole  gamut  of  pain. 
In  his  mental  nature  he  also  exhibited  ordinary 
human  powers.  As  a  child  he  p^rew  in  wisdom  as 
he  was  taught  in  the  home  and  school,  and  as  he 
asked  questions  and  looked  with  wondering  eyes 
on  all  the  world  as  it  unfolded  before  him.  His 
knowledge  was  limited,  for  he  asked  questions  out 
of  evident  ignorance,  was  subject  to  wonder, 
surprise  and  amazement,  states  of  mind  that  are 
possible  only  under  limited  knowledge;  and  he 
expressly  declared  that  he  did  not  know  the  time 
of  the  consummation  of  all  things.  His  character, 
also,  was  subject  to  human  conditions  of  growth 
and  experience.  He  learned  through  obedience 
and  was  made  perfect  through  suffering.  He  was 
subject  to  temptation,  and  all  the  evil  suggestions 
that  assail  men  beat  against  his  soul,  yet  without 
any  sinful  yielding  on  his  part.  He  lived  a  life  of 
faith  and  prayer  and  constantly  manifested  his 
dependence  upon  and  fellowship  with  his  Father. 
Finally  he  was  subject  to  death,  and  in  an  expiring 
cry  committed  his  spirit  into  God.  At  every  point 
Jesus  Christ  grew  and  lived  as  a  man  among 
men,  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh.  In 
all  of  these  respects  his  humanity  was  genuine, 
never   an   appearance   or  theatrical   display.     Any 


THE   PERSON   OF   CHRIST  75 

view  that  denies,  dissolves  away  or  impairs  this 
full  and  perfect  humanity  of  Christ  is  untrue  to 
Scripture  and  undermines  the  central  fact  of 
Christianity. 

II.  The  divinity  of  Christ  is  equally  with  his 
humanity  displayed  and  demonstrated  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. Not  only  pre-existence,  but  his  eternal 
existence  with  God  is  affirmed.  Divine  names  are 
freely  applied  to  him :  "In  the  beginning  was  the 
Word,  and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word 
was  God."  Christ  himself  accepted  such  names, 
and  when  Thomas  addressed  him  as  "My  Lord 
and  my  God,"  he  did  not  waive  aside  this  supreme 
crown.  The  attributes  of  God  are  ascribed  to 
him.  He  has  eternal  self-existence  as  contrasted 
with  temporal  created  existence,  he  is  immutable 
as  opposed  to  changeful  creatures,  and  he  claims 
powers  transcending  space  and  time.  "I  am  with 
you  alway,"  he  assured  his  disciples,  and  he  is 
"the  fulness  of  him  that  filleth  all  in  all."  Creation 
is  ascribed  to  him :  "All  things  were  made  by  him." 
Omnipotence  is  in  his  authority  and  reign:  "All 
authority  hath  been  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and 
on  earth,"  and  he  is  "the  Lord  God,  which  is 
and  which  was  and  which  is  to  come,  the 
Almighty."  Superhuman  knowledge  is  attributed 
to  him  in  his  earthly  ministry,  and  omniscience  in 


y6  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY! 

his  glorified  exaltation.  Equality  with  God  is  con- 
stantly ascribed  to  him  and  claimed  by  him. 
Words  that  would  be  terribly  blasphemous  or 
would  indicate  insanity  if  spoken  by  a  human 
person,  fall  from  his  lips  as  though  they  were 
perfectly  natural  to  him,  and  are  accepted  as  such 
by  his  disciples  and  by  all  the  world.  Divine 
works  are  performed  by  him.  In  nature  he  up- 
holds all  things  by  the  word  of  his  power,  and  in 
him  all  things  consist.  He  forgives  sin  and 
expressly  declares  that  this  is  an  exercise  of  divine 
power.  He  speaks  to  man  as  God,  claims  divine 
worship  from  man,  and  declares  that  he  will  judge 
the  world.  The  whole  New  Testament  is  satu- 
rated with  the  divinity  of  Christ.  We  can  scarcely 
read  a  line  of  it  without  encountering  some  act, 
statement  or  allusion  relating  to  him  that  is  absurd 
if  he  be  conceived  under  human  terms,  and  yet  his 
Person  retains  its  consistency  and  sanity  and  its 
hold  upon  the  Christian  world. 

HI.  The  fusion  of  these  two  natures  in  one 
person  has  ever  been  one  of  the  profoundest  prob- 
lems of  Christianity  and  must  ever  transcend  our 
power  of  solving  it.  Yet  we  encounter  such 
difficulties  at  many  other  points  and  are  not  dis- 
mayed by  them.  The  union  of  the  physical  body 
and  the   rational   spirit  in   a   human  person   is  a 


THE  PERSON  OF  CHRIST  'jy 

similar  mystery,  and  yet  in  this  mystery  we  live 
and  move  and  have  our  being.  Futile  attempts 
at  solving  the  problem  of  the  mystical  person  of 
Christ  have  resulted  in  almost  every  possible 
form  of  heresy.  The  divine  nature  has  been 
denied,  resulting  in  ancient  and  modem  Unitarian- 
ism,  and  the  human  nature  has  been  denied, 
resulting  in  the  ancient  Gnosticism.  Other  partial 
theories  impair  the  perfection  of  either  the  divine 
or  the  human  nature,  and  still  others  impair  the 
perfect  union  of  the  two.  The  only  doctrine  that 
satisfies  Scripture  and  holds  the  confidence  of  the 
Christian  Church  accepts  both  the  divine  and 
human  natures  perfectly  united  in  one  Person. 
He  is  perfect  man  and  perfect  God,  and  yet  he  is 
not  two  persons,  but  one  and  indivisible,  having  all 
the  attributes  and  powers  of  both.  Yet  we  are 
not  without  some  light  at  this  point.  The  kinship 
of  human  nature  with  God  as  his  offspring  is  the 
ground  of  the  possibilty  of  the  union  of  the  human 
with  the  divine.  God  did  not  take  into  union 
with  himself  a  foreign  and  alien  nature  in  assuming 
humanity,  but  spirit  of  like  nature  with  his  own. 
This  union  is  effected  by  each  nature  imparting 
itself  in  some  degree  to  the  other.  The  divine 
nature  is  imparted  to  the  human  so  that  Jesus 
Christ  the  man  had  knowledge  and  powers  which 


78  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

he  could  not  have  had  as  a  mere  man.  The  divin- 
ity was  in  a  manner  latent  in  the  humanity  and 
only  in  a  limited  degree  or  occasionally  gleamed 
through  the  humanity,  but  it  was  always  there. 
In  like  manner,  the  humanity  was  imparted  to 
and  in  a  degree  limited  the  divinity.  One  of  the 
deepest  mysteries  in  Scripture  is  the  act  and 
process  by  which  the  pre-existent  Logos  or  Word 
did  not  hold  on  to  or  grasp  his  "equality  with 
God,  but  emptied  himself,  taking  the  form  of  a 
servant,  being  made  in  the  likeness  of  men."  In 
some  manner  and  degree  God  emptied  himself  of 
his  divine  attributes  and  powers  in  Christ  and 
reduced  himself  to  human  dimensions  and  con- 
ditions. This  throws  light  upon  the  human 
limitations  of  God  in  Christ  and  enables  us  in 
some  degree  to  understand  this  mystery.  And  yet 
it  is  only  a  gleam  of  light,  and  the  Person  of 
Christ  must  ever  transcend  our  human  under- 
standing and  be  to  us  the  great  mystery  of 
godliness. 

IV.  This  complex  personality  of  Christ  fits 
him  for  the  work  of  mediation  between  God  and 
man  in  the  work  of  salvation.  His  divine  nature 
links  him  with  God  so  that  he  understands  him 
and  can  speak  for  him,  and  his  human  nature 
links  him   with  man   so   that   he   can   understand 


THE   PERSON   OF   CHRIST  79 

and  speak  for  him.  In  him  God  descends  and  man 
ascends  and  the  two  meet  and  are  reconciled 
and  forever  made  one.  With  one  hand  Christ 
lays  hold  of  God  and  with  the  other  he  lays  hold 
of  man,  and  thus  he  brings  them  together.  He 
brings  God's  light  and  love  and  forgiveness  to 
man,  and  takes  man's  penitence  and  faith  and 
obedience  back  to  God.  He  is  the  Head  of  a  new 
humanity,  as  Adam  was  the  head  of  the  old  hu- 
manity, and  causes  it  to  grow  up  into  his  own  ideal 
manhood  and  binds  it  to  the  Father  in  eternal 
fellowship.  As  in  no  other  religion,  the  Founder 
is  the  religion,  Christ  is  Christianity.  All  lines 
of  faith  and  love  and  service  lead  to  him,  and  from 
his  work  and  fellowship  all  blessings  flow. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  SINLESSNESS   OF   CHRIST 

We  come  to  the  study  of  Christ  as  he  was  mani- 
fested in  his  human  life,  and  at  once  are  attracted 
by  his  sinlessness.  Among  the  sons  of  men,  all 
of  whom,  without  exception,  are  more  or  less 
stained  with  sin,  he  only  walked  in  white.  He 
had  the  power  to  sin,  and  all  the  suggestions  and 
allurements  and  storms  of  temptation  beat  against 
him,  yet  he  resisted  them  and  kept  himself 
unspotted. 

I.  We  may  judge  of  his  character  at  this  point 
by  the  impressions  he  makes  on  various  classes  of 
observers.  And,  first,  what  impression  does  he 
make  on  us  ?  His  portrait  is  before  us  in  the  Gos- 
pels and  other  New  Testament  writings;  we  can 
still  follow  his  steps,  hear  him  speak,  look  into  his 
eye,  watch  the  development  of  his  character,  ob- 
serve his  behavior  under  the  most  diverse  and  try- 
ing conditions,  and  test  him  by  all  the  standards  we 
apply  to  our  fellowmen.  What  is  the  result?  He 
stands  faultless  and  unique  among  men,  severed 

80 


THE  SINLESSNESS  OF  CHRIST  8l 

from  them  by  the  whole  diameter  of  perfection. 
We  see  him  grow  through  a  beautiful  infancy  and 
childhood  into  maturity,  and  then  live  a  life  and 
display  a  character  in  which  we  can  find  no  flaw. 
He  is  pure  truth  and  trust,  honesty  and  honor, 
righteousness  and  reverence,  goodness  and  mercy 
and  love,  sympathy  and  service  and  sacrifice.  No 
excess  or  defect,  fault  of  omission  or  commission, 
evil  disposition  or  temper,  selfishness  or  sinister 
motive  ever  mars  the  splendid  beauty  of  his  per- 
fection. He  fulfils  all  human  relations,  passes 
through  all  experiences,  is  seen  in  joy  and  in 
sorrow,  under  the  whips  and  stings  of  malice  and 
in  the  agony  of  crucifixion,  and  yet  he  never  loses 
his  poise  and  balance,  gives  way  to  any  ill  temper, 
but  is  always  pure  sweetness  and  light.  It  is  true 
that  he  shows  indignation,  but  only  such  as  is  the 
expression  of  righteous  wrath.  As  we  watch  this 
Man,  there  is  nothing  we  would  add  to  him  or 
subtract  from  him,  no  criticism  we  would  pass 
upon  him,  no  finishing  touch  we  could  give  to 
him,  but  we  are  lost  in  admiration  of  him  as  the 
one  perfect  and  most  beautiful  personality  in  all 
the  world. 

II.     He  made  the  same  impression  during  his 
earthly  life  upon  his  friends.     His  disciples  were 
somewhat  reluctantly  won  by  him  and  drawn  into 
6 


82  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF    CHRISTIANITY 

his  companionship  and  were  not  prejudiced  wit- 
nesses. During  the  years  of  his  ministry  they  were 
constantly  and  most  intimately  associated  Asith 
him.  Master  and  disciples  ate  and  slept  together, 
walked  in  the  same  road  and  sailed  in  the  same 
boat,  endured  the  same  hardships  and  enmities 
and  persecutions.  His  disciples  heard  his  pubHc 
discourses  and  saw  his  works,  and  often  did  they 
commune  with  him  in  intimate  private  fellowship. 
They  were  full  enough  of  failures  and  faults, 
strifes  and  quarrels  themselves,  and  these  they 
freely  confess  and  set  down  in  their  writings,  but 
they  never  record  or  hint  at  any  fault  in  their 
Master.  "We  beheld  his  glory,"  says  one  of  them, 
and  another  testifies,  "Who  did  no  sin,  neither  was 
guile  found  in  his  mouth."  It  is  hard  for  a  man  to 
hide  his  faults  from  his  intimate  friends,  and  it  has 
passed  into  a  French  proverb  that  "No  man  is  a 
hero  in  the  eyes  of  his  valet."  But  these  men  gazed 
into  the  inmost  private  life  of  their  Master,  and  yet 
never  saw  the  slightest  fault. 

III.  Christ  stands  the  test  of  his  enemies.  The 
Jews  soon  became  his  malignant  foes,  watchful  of 
every  chance  or  pretense  of  finding  some  wrong 
in  him,  or  point  at  which  they  could  wound  him, 
but  their  efforts  were  in  vain.  They  brought 
charges  against  him  in  the  Roman  court,  but  their 


THE  SINLESSNESS  OF  CHRIST  83 

own  witnesses  contradicted  themselves  and  showed 
the  falsity  of  the  accusations.  They  made  other 
charges  that  really  redounded  to  the  credit  of 
Christ.  Their  sneer  that  he  ate  with  publicans 
and  sinners  only  showed  his  brotherly  spirit  with 
all  men,  and  their  allegation  that  he  made  himself 
"equal  with  God"  was  a  true  inference  from 
the  authority  he  exercised.  Pilate,  the  Roman 
judge,  who  examined  him  with  the  keenness  of  a 
lawyer,  "found  no  fault  in  this  man,"  and  Herod 
confirmed  the  verdict.  Christ  himself  boldly 
demanded  of  his  enemies,  "Which  of  you  con- 
vinceth  me  of  sin?"  and  none  of  them  ever  met 
the  challenge.  If  these  able  and  alert  enemies 
could  have  found  any  flaw  in  this  Man  they  would 
have  pointed  it  out,  but  he  stands  in  the  intensest 
light  of  their  malice  without  spot.  Some  modern 
critics  of  Christ  have  also  essayed  the  task  of 
finding  flaws  in  him,  but  with  no  deeper  insight  or 
better  success  than  their  ancient  exemplars.  They 
have  pointed  to  his  anger,  but  a  soul  without  the 
power  of  righteous  indignation  would  be  lacking 
in  one  element  of  manhood  and  would  not  com- 
mand our  respect.  On  the  other  hand,  some 
modern  skeptical  scholars  have  joined  in  the 
eulogy  of  Christ  as  a  perfect  character.  David 
Strauss,   who   reduced  Jesus   to   the  level   of  his 


84  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

human  kind,  said  that  he  had  "a  conscience  un- 
clouded by  the  memory  of  any  sins,"  and  John 
Stuart  Mill  wrote  that  "Religion  cannot  be  said 
to  have  made  a  bad  choice  in  pitching  on  this 
Man  as  the  ideal  representative  and  guide  of 
humanity." 

IV.  Christ's  own  consciousness  of  his  sinless- 
ness  is  a  powerful  testimony  to  its  reality.  He  had 
an  exquisite  sense  of  purity  that  has  become  the 
standard  and  ideal  of  the  world;  yet  he  never  ex- 
hibited any  sense  of  sin  in  himself.  He  led  others 
into  the  presence  of  God  and  taught  them  to  pray 
"Forgive  us  our  debts,"  but  he  never  included  him- 
self as  a  penitent  in  any  such  prayer.  He  showed 
the  greatest  horror  of  sin  in  others,  but  never  of 
any  in  himself.  Remorse  never  disturbed  the  per- 
fect serenity  of  his  spirit,  no  slightest  shadow  ever 
fell  upon  his  own  conscience  and  sense  of  peace 
with  God.  In  challenging  others  to  convince  him 
of  sin  he  asserted  in  the  strongest  terms  his  own 
sense  of  his  sinlessness.  If  it  be  said  that  one  is 
not  a  good  judge  of  his  own  moral  condition  and 
that  when  one  of  our  own  number  asserts  his 
personal  sinlessness  we  allege  the  fact  itself  as 
evidence  of  pride  or  blunted  moral  insight,  the 
answer  is  that  this  is  not  true  of  the  purest  souls. 
As  they  increase  in  purity  they  grow  more  sensi- 


THE   SINLESSNESS   OF   CHRIST  85 

tive  to  remaining  sin,  and  the  slightest  stain  on 
their  souls  gives  them  a  painful  sense  of  guilt. 
Christ  is  the  whitest  soul  known  in  history  on  any 
theory  of  his  beine.  and  therefore  his  self-judgment 
must  have  been  the  most  penetrating  and  exact- 
ing; yet  in  the  unbiased  light  of  his  own  con- 
sciousness he  stood  without  sin. 

V.  If  it  be  said  that  the  portrait  of  Christ  as 
a  sinless  soul  is  an  imaginary  one  and  need  have 
no  corresponding  reality  we  must  answer  that  the 
unlearned  men  that  drew  it  were  totally  incapable 
of  any  such  achievement.  It  is  with  great  diffi- 
culty that  a  master  of  fiction  can  construct  a 
character  that  maintains  its  inner  consistency 
through  manifold  experiences,  and  these  unskilled 
fishermen  would  have  been  the  greatest  literary 
geniuses  ever  known  if  they  had  accomplished 
such  a  task  out  of  their  imagination.  They  simply 
saw  and  told  the  truth  with  straightforward  honesty 
and  unconsciousness  of  inventive  effort. 

The  sinlessness  of  Christ  is  a  moral  miracle 
that  lifts  him  above  humanity  and  is  a  mark  of  his 
divinity.  It  is  one  of  his  necessary  qualifications 
as  the  Saviour  of  men ;  for  only  he  who  is  himself 
without  sin  can  deliver  others  out  of  their  sin. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    CHARACTER    OF    CHRIST 

SiNLESSNESS  IS  the  negative  side  of  the  character 
of  Christ,  and  we  now  pass  to  its  positive  side. 

I.  His  character  is  compacted  of  all  virtues 
raised  to  their  highest  power  and  beauty.  He 
was  a  perfectly  normal  human  being.  His  body 
was  pure  in  blood  and  bone  and  was  developed 
into  symmetry  and  strength  and  ruddy  health. 
His  mind  unfolded  fully  into  its  faculties  so  as  to 
give  him  a  clear  and  wide  grasp  of  truth,  his  heart 
was  a  fountain  of  all  good  and  beautiful  affections, 
desires,  aspirations  and  motives,  his  will  main- 
tained masterful  sway  over  all  his  powers,  and 
conscience  was  the  crown  of  his  soul.  This 
perfect  personality  flowered  into  all  the  virtues 
and  graces  of  character.  He  was  truth,  for  he 
looked  at  reality  with  unclouded  vision  and 
photographic  accuracy  and  honesty,  and  he  spoke 
and  lived  it  so  that  he  could  say,  "I  am  the  truth." 
Tradition  and  authority,  interest  and  prejudice, 
exercised   no   undue   control   over   his   mind,   and 

86 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  CHRIST  87 

there  was  no  misrepresentation,  deception,  or  un- 
reality of  any  kind  or  degree  in  him,  no  veneering 
or  paint  on  him,  but  the  polished  surface  of  his 
beauty  only  showed  the  solid  wood.  Purity, 
patience  and  peace,  truth  and  trust,  honesty  and 
honor,  righteousness  and  reverence,  goodness  and 
gentleness,  kindness  and  courtesy,  mercy  and  love, 
sympathy,  service  and  sacrifice — all  virtues  com- 
bined in  him  into  a  perfect  disposition,  the  one 
flawless  diamond  and  supremely  beautiful  char- 
acter that  ever  appeared  among  men. 

II.  A  striking  and  difficult  feature  of  this  char- 
acter is  its  symmetry.  Character  is  a  complex 
and  intricate  construction  and  is  easily  thrown  out 
of  balance.  It  may  be  strong  in  one  direction 
and  weak  in  another,  highly  developed  in  one 
faculty  or  virtue  and  dwarfed  in  another,  and  thus 
be  ill-proportioned  and  misshapen.  It  is  com- 
paratively easy  to  have  one  virtue  or  a  few  virtues: 
the  difficult  thing  is  to  have  all  virtues  in  their 
proper  proportion  and  symmetry.  Christ  stands 
supreme  among  men  as  the  one  perfectly  balanced 
man,  having  all  elements  of  character  blended  into 
harmony  and  making  a  full-rounded  personality. 
This  symmetry  is  especially  seen  in  those  elements 
of  character  that  go  in  pairs  and  are  complemen- 
tary.    Thought  and  emotion  are  two  elements  that 


S»  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

are  apt  to  throw  each  other  out  of  balance,  one 
man  running  to  abstract,  cold  intellectuality  that 
chills  his  feelings,  and  another  running  to  emotion- 
alism that  blinds  his  judgment  and  sweeps  him 
off  into  uncontrolled  action;  but  in  Jesus  these  two 
elements  were  perfectly  balanced :  he  saw  clearly 
and  he  felt  deeply,  and  his  action  issued  from  both 
brain  and  heart  in  one  powerful  stream.  Jesus 
had  intense  convictions  of  his  own,  combined 
with  patience  and  tolerance  towards  the  differing 
convictions  of  others — a  rare  combination  of  vir- 
tues. He  did  not  bear  down  upon  those  who 
differed  from  him  in  intellectual  belief  in  a  dicta- 
torial and  arbitrary  way  and  crush  them  by  sheer 
authority,  but  dealt  with  them  patiently  and 
gently.  His  sweet  reasonableness  was  one  of  the 
most  winning  aspects  of  his  character.  Deep  and 
intense  convictions  tend  to  bigotry  and  fanaticism, 
intolerance  and  persecution,  but  none  of  the  dis- 
ciples of  Jesus  ever  caught  this  spirit  from  their 
Master. 

HI.  There  are  many  of  these  complementary 
virtues  in  Christ.  Another  pair  is  seen  in  his 
rich  inner  and  his  active  outer  life.  His  inner  life 
grew  in  solitude,  which  is  the  mother  country  of 
the  strong.  He  spent  thirty  years  in  private 
sequestered   preparation   for   only   three   years   of 


THE   CHARACTER  OF   CHRIST  89 

public  service.  Often  during  his  ministry  he 
retired  into  the  mountains  for  prayer.  Yet  he 
was  no  recluse,  but  threw  himself  out  into  the 
world  and  was  a  man  among  men.  He  mingled 
freely  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  and 
knew  them  on  their  farms  and  in  their  cities,  in 
their  markets  and  fishing  boats,  in  private  friend- 
ship and  in  fashionable  society,  and  he  thus 
combined  deep  inner  meditation  with  outer  activ- 
ity into  a  full-orbed  and  fruitful  life.  Still  another 
pair  of  complementary  virtues  were  his  deep  vision 
of  the  evil  of  the  world  and  his  jubilant  optimism. 
He  looked  through  the  world  and  saw  all  its  evil 
down  to  its  lowest  depths  of  sin  and  shame ;  and 
yet  he  seemed  strangely  untroubled  over  all  its 
poverty  and  corruption,  sin  and  sorrow,  pain  and 
mystery.  He  walked  through  the  world  with  a 
serene  soul  and  rejoiced  in  spirit.  He  was  the 
most  jubilant  optimist  that  ever  Hved.  His  secret 
was  this :  he  saw  that  the  world  was  bad  but  that 
it  could  be  made  better.  He  looked  not  at  what 
it  was  so  much  as  what  it  might  be  and  would  be; 
and  then  he  threw  himself  into  the  work  of  making 
it  better,  and  the  joy  of  this  service  and  sacrifice 
scattered  the  mists  of  pessimism  and  shed  around 
him  the  brightness  of  faith  and  hope. 

IV.     There  are  complementary  virtues  that  are 


90  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

still  more  difficult  of  combination;  they  even  ap- 
pear antagonistic  and  impossible  of  reconciliation. 
Among  these  we  must  place  justice  and  mercy. 
Justice  grows  stern  and  insists  on  its  demands, 
though  it  seem  to  crush  mercy;  and  mercy  grows 
indulgent  and  is  in  danger  of  overriding  the 
necessities  of  justice.  Jesus  solved  this  difficult 
problem.  He  combined  an  ardent  hatred  for  sin 
with  an  equally  ardent  love  for  the  sinner.  His 
pure  and  sensitive  soul  turned  from  sin  with  the 
deepest  abhorrence,  yet  he  always  manifested  a 
wonderful  depth  and  delicacy  of  tenderness  for 
the  penitent  sinner.  He  wept  over  Jerusalem,  yet 
he  yearned  to  gather  its  children  under  his 
forgiveness  and  love.  To  be  uncharitable  and 
vindictive  towards  the  faults  of  others  is  itself  one 
of  the  greatest  faults,  and  Jesus  was  perfect  at 
this  difficult  point.  That  he  might  be  just  and 
yet  the  justifier  of  them  that  believe,  that  God 
might  be  holy  and  yet  merciful,  was  the  object  of 
his  mission  and  the  ground  of  necessity  for  the 
Cross.  So,  also,  Jesus  combined  the  opposite  and 
somewhat  contradictory  virtues  of  meekness  and 
manliness,  of  gentleness  and  courage,  of  tender- 
ness and  might.  The  passive  virtues  were  almost 
unknown  or  were  depreciated  and  despised  in  the 
ancient  pagan  world.     Proud  Rome  had  no  respect 


THE   CHARACTER  OF   CHRIST  pi 

for  meekness  and  gentleness,  but  was  quick  to  repel 
any  real  or  imaginary  offense  and  reveled  in  blood. 
Jesus  was  gentle  as  a  child  and  tender  in  his 
touch  as  a  woman,  and  he  taught  the  doctrine  of 
turning  the  other  cheek  to  the  smiter's  hand;  yet 
never  was  there  a  manlier  man  or  a  braver  soul 
than  he.  Lightnings  leaped  from  his  indignant 
lips  to  smite  hypocritical  Pharisees.  He  faced  the 
soldiers  sent  to  arrest  him  with  such  calm  bravery, 
such  dignity  and  majesty,  that  they  fell  before  him 
as  though  he  were  earth's  greatest  potentate.  His 
followers  in  so  far  as  they  have  caught  his  spirit 
have  never  been  weaklings,  but  strong  men  as 
ever  trod  the  earth,  the  knightliest  among  the 
brave,  who  have  stood  before  kings  and  hurled 
despots  from  their  seats. 

In  these  and  in  many  other  points,  such  as  self 
and  others,  this  world  and  the  next  world,  Jesus 
combined  complementary  virtues  into  balanced 
harmony  and  unity,  and  thus  he  is  the  one  perfect 
pattern  of  humanity,  "the  fairest  among  ten 
thousand  and  the  one  altogether  lovely." 

V.  A  striking  feature  of  the  character  of  Christ 
is  its  universality.  Every  human  being  is  bom 
and  grows  within  the  envelope  of  his  age  and  race 
and  country,  and  never  wholly  escapes  these  limi- 
tations.   A  man  of  the  first  or  tenth  or  fifteenth 


92  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

century  could  not  get  his  head  up  into  the  twen- 
tieth century;  and  a  child  of  an  oriental  race 
cannot  become  occidental  in  instinct  and  tempera- 
ment, a  Japanese  or  Turk  cannot  become  a 
German  or  an  Englishman.  Heredity  stamps  itself 
upon  every  atom  of  the  blood.  An  American 
everywhere  bears  with  him  the  marks  of  his 
nationality,  and  a  Jew  is  a  Jew  down  to  the  last 
fiber.  However  enlarged  in  his  knowledge  and 
sympathies  and  cosmopolitan  in  spirit  he  may  be- 
come, no  man  can  break  away  from  and  fling  off 
the  shell  in  which  he  was  born;  grow  as  he  may, 
try  hard  as  he  will,  it  will  cling  to  him  and  at 
points  bind  him  still.  The  nearest  approach  to 
universality  is  seen  in  men  of  genius,  such  as 
Homer  and  Shakespeare,  who  produce  works  of 
art  that  have  general  circulation  in  the  world.  But 
even  these  men  are  circumscribed  in  their  range, 
and  their  works  must  not  be  carried  too  far  from 
home  or  they  will  lose  their  audience,  or  time  will 
render  them  obsolete.  Jesus  was  the  universal 
man.  It  is  true  that  even  he  had  some  marks  of 
his  age  and  race  upon  him.  His  human  knowl- 
edge was  that  of  his  time,  and  he  was  a  son  of  his 
race.  Yet  he  also  overleaped  all  these  boundaries 
and  limitations.  Though  he  sprang  from  the  Jew- 
ish people,  yet  he  is  not  a  Jew,  and  the   world 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  CHRIST  93 

is  hardly  conscious  of  his  race.  He  is  the 
Son  of  Man,  the  typical  and  representative,  the 
ideal  and  perfect  man,  who  is  equally  at  home 
among  all  the  sons  of  men.  His  character  has 
none  of  the  peculiar  marks  or  qualities  of  any 
particular  race,  but  has  that  breadth  and  balance, 
poise  and  power,  that  make  it  the  model  and  para- 
gon of  all  races:  it  is  compounded  of  all  virtues 
and  graces  mixed  and  blended  in  perfect  propor- 
tion. And  so  age  can  never  wither  him  or  custom 
stale  his  infinite  variety.  He  speaks  only  on 
universal  themes,  in  immortal  words  that  will 
never  grow  old.  His  teachings  meet  and  satisfy 
the  religious  demands  of  the  twentieth  as  of  the 
first  century  and  can  never  lose  their  perennial 
music  and  charm.  He  draws  the  men  of  every 
race  to  his  side  in  affection  and  trust,  devotion 
and  service.  Compared  with  him  the  greatest 
geniuses  are  local  characters  and  parochial  school- 
masters. He  looms  over  all  the  world  as  the  one 
universal  man  who  represents  and  typifies  the  race, 
and  is  at  home  in  all  ages  and  lands  and  among 
all  peoples. 

VI.  But  what  is  the  central  principle  of  his 
character,  its  total  aspect  and  outcome?  He  has 
been  described  from  various  points  of  view.  A 
favorite  theory  has  been  that  he  was  the  Man  of 


94  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

Sorrows  and  his  religion  has  been  characterized  as 
the  Religion  of  Pity.  "For  the  natural  virtues 
of  the  Greeks,"  says  Friedrich  Paulsen,  "Chris- 
tianity substitutes  a  single  new  one :  pity  or 
mercy."  Renan  went  to  the  other  extreme  and 
painted  Jesus  as  a  young  Galilean  peasant  with  an 
opulent  genius  for  geniality  and  joy.  Thus  one 
extreme  construes  Christ's  character  in  terms  of 
asceticism,  and  another  in  terms  of  estheticism. 
Such  portraits  are  fragments  of  the  truth,  but  not 
the  truth.  No  one  of  these  traits  was  central  in  his 
life  but  was  rather  an  incidental  aspect,  the  scenery 
thrpugh  which  he  passed  as  he  pressed  on  to  the 
end.  The  total  aspect  of  his  life  as  portrayed  in 
the  New  Testament  is  that  of  holy  power.  "God 
anointed  Jesus  of  Nazareth  with  power."  He  had 
a  single  masterful  purpose  in  life,  to  do  the  will 
of  the  Father  in  saving  men  and  establishing  the 
kingdom  of  righteousness  and  peace  on  earth. 
This  purpose  compacted  him  into  unity,  compressed 
all  his  energies  into  one  stream,  and  moved  him 
with  unyielding  and  irresistible  might  towards 
one  end. 

Thus  all  the  elements  of  the  character  of  Christ 
combine  to  make  him  the  Strong  Man  of  the  world, 
who  "cometh  glorious  in  his  apparel,  traveling  in 
the  greatness  of  his  strength,  mighty  to  save." 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE    CONSCIOUSNESS    OF    CHRIST 

There  are  transcendent  elements  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  Christ,  which  must  be  considered  in 
our  study  of  his  personaUty.  While  these  elements 
soon  pass  beyond  our  apprehension,  yet  we  can 
discern  their  outlines  as  they  are  manifested  in 
his  human  life.  Christ  himself  constantly  assumed, 
frequently  displayed  and  occasionally  asserted  such 
transcendence,  and  any  construction  of  his  person 
that  leaves  this  fact  out  of  view  is  fatally  deficient 
and  faulty. 

I.  In  his  consciousness  Christ  transcended  na- 
ture. We  cannot  solve  the  problem  how  this  trans- 
cendence emerged  in  the  human  consciousness  of 
Jesus,  but  we  see  traces  of  its  growth,  and  his 
baptism  when  the  Spirit  descended  upon  him  and 
he  heard  a  voice  from  heaven  declaring  to  him, 
"Thou  art  my  beloved  Son,"  seems  to  have  marked 
the  hour  when  his  divine  consciousness  came  to  its 
full-blown  flower  or  burst  upon  him  as  a  mighty 
revelation.     Then  it  was  that  he  went  into  the  wil- 

95 


96  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

derness  to  meet  his  great  temptation.  The  first 
temptation  was  that  he  should  use  his  power  over 
nature  for  his  personal  end  in  turning  stones  into 
bread.  The  whole  point  and  power  of  this  temp- 
tation lay  in  its  appeal  to  his  consciousness  of 
transcendence  over  nature.  If  he  had  not  been 
conscious  of  any  such  power  there  would  have  been 
no  temptation  in  the  suggestion.  He  knew  he 
could  transmute  stones  into  bread  and  fling  him- 
self unharmed  from  the  pinnacle  of  the  Temple, 
but  he  resisted  the  thought  because  such  action 
was  not  in  accordance  with  his  mission  and  the 
Father's  will.  All  of  his  miracles  were  exhibitions 
of  his  power  over  nature.  And  thus  the  con-* 
sciousness  of  Christ  penetrated  nature  and  sub- 
jected it  to  his  will. 

II.  Christ  in  his  consciousness  transcended 
man.  Early  in  his  ministry  "J^sus  did  not  trust 
himself  unto  them,  for  that  he  knew  all  men,  and 
because  he  needed  not  that  any  one  should  bear 
witness  concerning  man ;  for  he  himself  knew  what 
was  in  man."  These  words  are  interpreted  by 
some  commentators  as  only  describing  his  deep 
and  intimate  knowledge  of  human  nature,  but  they 
appear  to  go  beyond  this  and  imply  the  divine 
knowledge  of  man  which  Jesus  frequently  exer- 
cised.    He   knew   Nathanael  before   he  met   him, 


THE  CONSCIOUSNESS  OF   CHRIST  97 

disputing  with  Pharisees  "he  knew  their  thoughts," 
and  he  "knew  from  the  beginning  who  they  were 
that  beUeved  not,  and  who  it  was  that  should  be- 
tray him."  Such  passages  as  these  are  plainly 
intended  to  describe  something  more  than  a 
shrewd  insight  into  human  nature.  As  the  con- 
sciousness of  Christ  broke  through  the  barriers  of 
nature,  so  it  passed  the  borders  of  human  minds 
and  enabled  him  to  discern  the  thoughts  and  intents 
of  the  heart. 

III.  The  consciousness  of  Christ  transcended 
sin.  He  saw  through  the  nature  of  sin  to  the 
depths  of  its  vileness  and  guilt  and  abhorred  it 
as  no  human  soul  ever  hated  it.  He  saw  it  as 
a  deadly  knife  slashing  all  the  tissues  of  life  and 
as  a  stab  at  God  himself.  He  was  able  to  classify 
and  grade  sins  according  to  their  true  nature  and 
degree  of  guilt,  and  his  catalogue  and  condemna- 
tion of  sins  were  very  different  from  the  conven- 
tional judgments  of  men.  The  penitent  woman 
taken  in  adultery  he  dismissed  with  a  few  kindly 
words,  but  his  lips  flamed  with  fearful  judgment 
against  the  spiritual  sins  of  self-righteous  Phar- 
isees and  scribes.  These  Jewish  doctors  of  di- 
vinity had  drawn  up  catalogues  of  fictitious  sins 
of  their  own  manufacture  and  had  perverted  all 
true   judgment    of    right    and    wrong;    but    Jesus 

7 


98  THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

trampled  upon  their  false  distinctions  and  defined 
and  condemned  the  real  sins  that  offend  God  and 
destroy  men.  Jesus  mounted  into  still  higher 
transcendence  of  sin:  he  forgave  it  and  thereby 
exercised  a  divine  prerogative.  When  he  said  to 
the  palsied  man,  "Son,  thy  sin  be  forgiven  thee," 
the  scribes  exclaimed,  "Who  can  forgive  sins  but 
God  only?"  They  were  right  in  their  theology, 
but  wrong  in  their  application  of  it.  When  Jesus 
spoke  these  words  and  other  words  of  like  import 
he  mounted  the  judgment  seat  of  God. 

IV.  Christ  transcended  humanity  by  exercis- 
ing lordship  over  it.  All  through  his  ministry  he 
assumed  and  asserted  such  lordship.  He  com- 
manded all  men  to  believe  on  and  follow  him  and 
promised  them  eternal  life.  He  made  himself  the 
standard  and  test  by  which  all  men  shall  be  judged : 
to  believe  on  him  is  eternal  life,  and  to  believe  not 
is  eternal  death.  In  his  great  picture  of  the  final 
judgment  he  himself  sits  upon  the  throne  and 
before  him  are  gathered  all  nations;  and  he  sends 
men  to  the  right  or  to  the  left  according  as  they 
have  or  have  not  served  him.  In  this  august  rela- 
tion he  transcends  all  human  powers  and  declares 
himself  to  be  Lord  of  all. 

V.  In  his  consciousness  Christ  transcended 
space  and  time.     These  are  two  of  the  most  abso- 


THE   CONSCIOUSNESS  OF   CHRIST  PQ 

lute  barriers  against  which  our  finite  powers  beat 
Try  as  we  will,  imagine  as  we  may,  we  cannot 
escape  from  these  envelopes.  Mathematicians  con- 
struct theoretical  higher  dimensions,  but  as  a 
matter  of  experience  they  are  confined  within  three 
dimensions  as  rigidly  as  the  most  illiterate  peasant. 
Jesus  does  not  certainly  appear  to  have  trans- 
cended space  during  his  ministry,  but  after  his  res- 
urrection he  passed  into  solidly  inclosed  rooms  and 
appeared  to  have  been  released  from  the  bound- 
aries of  space.  His  transcendence  of  time  was 
still  more  manifest.  The  eternity  out  of  which  he 
came  at  times  overshadowed  him  and  enwrapped 
him  in  its  folds  so  that  he  had  moments  of  univer- 
sal consciousness.  "Before  Abraham  was,"  he 
calmly  said,  "I  am."  The  words  were  so  mon- 
strous to  the  Jews  that  they  threw  stones  at  him, 
but  Jesus  "was  hidden"  as  though  he  had  melted 
out  of  sight.  The  words  were  monstrous  in  their 
delusion,  or  else  they  were  words  of  truth. 

VI.  Christ  in  his  consciousness  transcended  all 
finite  being  and  was  one  with  God.  "No  one 
knoweth  the  Son,  save  the  Father,"  he  said; 
"neither  doth  any  know  the  Father,  save  the  Son." 
In  these  words  he  lifts  himself  quite  out  of  the 
class  and  condition  of  men  into  absolute  fellowship 
with  the  Father.     The  Father  knows  him  with  the 


lOO         THE  BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

omniscience  of  God,  and  with  equal  insight  and 
intimacy  does  he  know  the  Father.  He  thus  makes 
himself  as  unique  and  absolute  in  his  knowledge 
of  God  as  God  is  in  his  knowledge  of  his  Son. 
This  was  an  immense  thing  for  Christ  to  say, 
either  showing  himself  insane — and  no  one  ever 
thinks  of  him  as  unbalanced — or  else  lifting  him 
to  the  level  of  God.  And  this  is  not  a  single 
exceptional  statement  of  his  deity.  Such  flashes 
and  glimpses  are  properly  few,  but  they  are 
decisive.  "O  Father,  glorify  thou  me  with  thine 
own  self  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  thee 
before  the  world  was."  "I  and  the  Father  are 
one."  These  are  not  hyperbolic  or  poetic  state- 
ments, but  are  calm  words  of  soberness  and  truth. 
These  statements  and  views  as  to  the  transcend- 
ence of  Christ  are  necessarily  figures  and  symbols 
"thrown  out"  at  a  truth  that  shoots  away  from  us 
into  the  infinite;  but  they  none  the  less  convey  to 
us  glimpses  of  reality  that  must  enter  into  our 
view  of  Christ.  We  cannot  psychologically  con- 
struct or  imagine  such  a  consciousness,  but  neither 
ought  we  to  limit  the  transcendent  by  our  finite 
thought.  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  true  man  as  he 
was  and  acting  at  times  and  points  under  the 
limitations  of  humanity,  yet  transcended  these 
limitations  and  is  one  with  the  Father. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    MINISTRY    OF    CHRIST 

Having  seen  how  Christ  was  constituted  for  his 
mission  in  his  divine  person,  character  and  con- 
sciousness, we  now  take  a  rapid  view  of  him  at 
work. 

I.  A  long  preparation  preceded  his  short  min- 
istry :  thirty  years  of  comparative  solitude  for  three 
years  of  public  service.  He  grew  in  body  and 
mind,  in  the  home  and  school  and  synagogue  and 
carpenter  shop,  and  thus  acquired  human  strength 
and  wisdom  for  his  task.  Even  the  Son  of  God 
did  not  rush  untrained  and  ill-prepared  into  his 
work,  but  took  plenty  of  time,  passed  through 
thorough  discipline  and  got  ready.  The  meteor 
travels  through  millions  of  invisible  miles  gather- 
ing momentum  for  its  brief  flash  of  splendor,  and 
the  long  hidden  years  of  Jesus  prepared  him  sud- 
denly to   shine   forth  as  the  Light  of  the  world. 

n.  His  baptism  marked  the  point  of  his  en- 
trance into  his  public  work.  This  ordinance  was 
a    divinely    appointed    sign    of    entrance    through 

lOI 


102         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

repentance  and  consecration  into  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Jesus  submitted  to  it,  not  because  he  needed 
repentance  for  any  personal  sin,  but  because  he 
was  the  representative  of  sinful  men  and  because 
he  became  obedient  unto  all  divine  appointments. 
He  did  not  come  into  the  world  simply  to  show 
men  what  to  do,  but  to  go  before  in  the  path  he 
would  have  them  follow;  and  so  he  never  asked 
them  to  do  anything  which  he  did  not  first  do  him- 
self. By  his  baptism  he  publicly  entered  into  the 
kingdom,  and  thus  opened  the  way  for  others  to 
follow.  Thus  he  began  his  ministry  by  accepting 
a  religious  ordinance.  There  is  danger  in  such 
ordinances,  the  danger  that  the  outer  form  of  the 
ceremony  will  constrict  the  inner  spirit  of  religion, 
but  religion  must  have  some  ordinances,  as  the 
water  must  have  the  cup  to  hold  it.  Jesus  set 
his  seal  upon  religious  rites  at  the  beginning  of 
his  ministry,  though  there  never  was  a  greater 
foe  of  ritualistic  religion  than  he.  His  submis- 
sion to  this  ordinance  marked  the  moment  when 
his  consciousness  flowered  into  a  sense  of  his  divin- 
ity and  the  Father  set  upon  him  the  seal,  "This  is 
my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 
Had  Jesus  not  gone  down  into  the  baptismal 
water,  he  never  would  have  come  up  under  an 
opened  sky  with  the  Holy  Spirit  streaming  upon 


THE   MINISTRY   OF   CHRIST  103 

him,  and  God  never  would  have  pronounced  him 
his  Son.  But  he  faithfully  obeyed  his  humble 
duty,  and  it  blossomed  and  bore  these  wondrous 
heavenly  fruits. 

III.  From  his  baptism  Jesus  was  hurried  off  to 
his  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  so  sudden  and 
violent  was  the  change  in  his  spiritual  weather. 
This  temptation  was  the  logical  consequence  of 
his  experience  at  his  baptism.  Seized  and  over- 
whelmed with  the  mighty  consciousness  of  his 
divine  power,  he  was  confronted  with  the  alter- 
native uses  to  which  he  might  put  it.  When 
fasting  had  set  afire  every  fiber  of  his  body  with 
hunger  and  thirst,  the  suggestion  that  he  should 
turn  stones  into  fresh,  fragrant  bread  fairly  made 
him  wild  with  the  fever  of  desire.  A  tremendous 
strain  was  thus  put  upon  his  consciousness  of 
divine  power  to  turn  it  to  his  own  personal  comfort. 
Had  he  yielded  to  this  first  suggestion,  the  tempta- 
tion would  have  carried  him  over  the  precipice  of 
the  right  use  into  the  chasm  of  the  wrong  use  of  his 
power,  and  he  would  have  lost  his  life  in  seeking 
to  save  it.  But  he  withstood  the  strain  and  saved 
himself  and  thereby  saved  his  work  and  saved  the 
world.  Jesus  came  out  of  that  wilderness  wearing 
the  crown  of  self-mastery,  captain  of  his  own  soul 
and  destiny.    Only  he  who  thus  saves  himself  in 


104         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

the  hour  of  trial  can  save  others,  and  Jesus  opened 
his  ministry  with  this  supreme  trial  and  triumph. 
IV.  From  the  temptation  in  the  wilderness 
Jesus  returned  to  Galilee  where  he  opened  his 
ministry  in  Cana  with  the  miracle  of  turning  water 
into  wine.  This  first  miracle  was  typical  of  all 
his  miracles.  It  was  not  wrought  as  a  mere  won- 
der to  excite  astonishment  or  to  attract  attention 
to  himself,  but  as  a  work  of  beneficence.  It  is 
true  that  it  "manifested  forth  his  glory,"  but  not 
as  a  sensational  wonder:  it  showed  his  command 
over  natural  agents  and  his  willingness  to  use 
his  power  for  beneficent  ends.  All  his  miracles, 
excepting  only  the  withered  fig  tree,  were  works 
of  mercy  in  which  he  ministered  to  human  needs. 
Such  works  necessarily  created  sensations,  but 
Jesus  himself  endeavored  to  allay  such  excitement 
and  to  keep  his  miracles  in  the  background.  He 
used  them  only  sparingly  and  refused  to  play 
the  part  of  a  mere  wonder-worker.  They  were 
exhibitions  of  his  deeper  power  to  save ;  they  made 
manifest  in  the  outer  physical  world  what  he 
could  do  in  the  inner  spiritual  world.  In  their 
beneficence  they  were  in  keeping  with  his  whole 
nature  and  mission.  They  flowered  out  of  him  as 
naturally  as  leaves  out  of  a  tree  or  as  blooms  out 
of  a   rosebush;   he  emitted   them  as   easily   as   a 


THE    MINISTRY   OF   CHRIST  10$ 

dynamo  emits  sparks;  they  came  from  his  heart 
and  showed  his  central  nature  of  power  sheathed 
in  love.  And  thus  Jesus  never  worked  miracles 
for  their  own  sake,  but  only  as  means  to  his 
higher  end  of  working  greater  miracles  in  the 
spiritual  world  in  the  salvation  of  men. 

V.  The  chief  work  of  Jesus  was  to  lead  men 
to  penitence  and  bind  them  to  himself  in  faith  and 
fellowship.  He  endeavored  to  start  it  inside  the 
Jewish  Church,  which  was  the  divinely  appointed 
preparation  for  his  mission,  the  root  that  should 
have  flowered  into  his  person  and  work.  But  "he 
came  unto  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not." 
He  soon  met  with  a  chilling  reception  in  the  Jew- 
ish Church,  then  with  suspicion  that  grew  into 
hostility  and  burst  into  furious  hatred  that  bore 
the  scarlet  blossom  of  his  blood:  this  was  the 
terrible  failure  and  crime  of  the  Church,  this  shows 
into  what  depths  of  sin  and  guilt  the  Church  may 
fall.  And  so  Jesus  left  the  bigoted  and  rebellious 
synagogue  and  the  proud,  hypocritical  temple  and 
went  out  into  the  highways  and  byways  of  Judea, 
into  the  wilderness  and  mountains,  to  the  seashore 
and  into  the  fishing  villages,  and  preached  to  the 
people.  He  made  no  distinction  among  the  people 
he  sought,  and  talked  as  freely  to  a  disreputable 
woman  down  in  Samaria  as  to  the  influential  and 


I06         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

proud  Nicodemus  up  in  Jerusalem.  Hated  tax- 
gatherers,  beggars,  outcasts,  adulterers,  had  as 
easy  access  to  and  warm  welcome  from  him  as  the 
rich  and  fashionable.  Sometimes  he  preached  to 
great  throngs  crowding  the  vast  amphitheater  of 
the  seashore,  but  more  often  he  talked  to  a  few 
people  in  private,  and  with  him  one  soul  was  a 
great  audience.  His  aim  was  to  get  into  the  inner 
life  of  each  hearer  and  possibly  touch  the  sore 
spot  hidden  there,  and  then  lead  him  to  penitence 
and  faith,  forgiveness  and  healing.  He  did  not 
measure  results  by  the  multitudes  that  thronged 
around  him,  but  by  the  few  whom  he  drew  into 
his  fellowship,  filled  with  his  Spirit,  and  enlisted 
in  his  service. 

VI.  His  chief  work  narrowed  down  to  the 
training  of  a  few  chosen  disciples.  It  is  remark- 
able how  many  things  we  think  important  Jesus 
did  not  do.  He  did  not  go  to  Jerusalem,  build 
a  great  tabernacle  seating  five  or  ten  thousand 
people  and  hold  immense  meetings  that  would  stir 
the  city  and  land.  He  did  not  write  any  books 
or  publish  any  sermons;  he  never  wrote  anything 
but  a  few  words  in  the  sand  and  was  quite  careless 
of  what  became  of  his  words,  committing  them 
to  the  vagrant  winds.  But  he  did  choose  a  few 
select  men  and  gave  himself  for  three  years  to 


THE   MI^fISTRY   OF   CHRIST  IO7 

the  work  of  training  them  and  filling  them  with 
his  Spirit.  He  poured  his  mind  into  them  and 
set  them  on  fire  with  his  burning  ideas  until  they 
had  his  vision  of  a  redeemed  world  and  flamed 
with  love  for  God  and  for  himself  and  for  man: 
then  he  sent  them  out  as  glowing  coals  to  set  the 
world  on  fire,  as  seeds  to  fertilize  it.  History  has 
justified  his  method.  Jesus  Christ  has  thus  re- 
peated and  multiplied  himself  down  through  the 
centuries  and  is  to-day  leavening  the  world.  He 
planted  a  kingdom  that  is  an  organism,  budding 
and  expanding  with  the  enormous  and  endless 
self-propagating  power  of  life.  And  so  his  king- 
dom comes  and  shall  come  until  his  will  is  done 
on  earth. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  TEACHING  OF   CHRIST 

Jesus  Christ  is  the  supreme  Schoolmaster  of 
the  world.  "A  Teacher  come  from  God"  he  was 
pronounced  by  a  great  Jewish  doctor  of  divinity, 
and  the  centuries  have  accepted  this  verdict  and 
turned  the  world  into  his  amphitheater  in  which 
the   nations   are   listening-  to   his   gracious   words. 

I.  We  are  struck  with  the  manner  of  his  teach- 
ing. It  was  artless,  simple,  sincere,  coming  as 
a  living  stream  out  of  his  own  experience,  appeal- 
ing to  the  experience  of  his  hearers,  and  throbbing 
with  sympathy  and  earnestness.  The  scribes  and 
Pharisees  were  the  official  teachers  of  his  day, 
but  they  were  droning  away  on  dry  themes,  tech- 
nical points  in  an  artificial  theological  system  of 
their  own  invention,  and  the  people  had  grown 
weary  of  their  speech.  The  teaching  of  Jesus 
came  to  these  hearers  like  a  fresh  breeze  in  the 
sultry,  stagnant,  stifling  atmosphere,  or  a  shower 
of  rain  on  parched  ground.  He  spoke  on  the 
subject  of  religion  as  a  living  matter  and  made  it 
io8 


THE  TEACHING  OF  CHRIST  lOQ 

as  real  and  vital  as  fishing  or  farming.  His  words 
were  the  common  words  of  everyday  speech,  yet 
they  bore  a  new  weight  of  meaning  as  they  came 
home  to  the  business  and  bosom  of  his  hearers. 
The  deepest  note  of  his  teaching  was  his  reality; 
it  carried  with  it  its  own  self-evidencing  power. 
He  was  not  simply  repeating  traditional  doctrines 
that  were  long  since  outworn  and  dead,  but  was 
speaking  that  he  did  know  and  testifying  that  he 
had  seen.  It  was  this  directness  and  reality  of 
his  teaching  that  led  the  common  people  to  hear 
him  gladly  and  officers  to  exclaim,  "Never  man 
spake  like  this  man." 

n.  The  general  characteristics  of  his  teaching 
also  strike  our  attention.  He  taught  with  author- 
ity, but  not  with  the  arbitrary  authority  of  official 
station.  The  authority  that  clothed  his  words  was 
that  of  inherent  and  self-evident  truth.  His  words 
were  their  own  witnesses  and  needed  no  official 
claim  or  station  to  confirm  them.  His  teaching 
was  also  marked  by  universality.  While  speak- 
ing directly  to  the  people  of  his  own  time,  yet  he 
was  equally  speaking  to  the  people  of  all  time. 
His  subjects,  however  personal  or  local,  were  yet 
universal  in  their  range  and  application.  The 
smallest  matter  in  his  hands  became  great.  He 
kept  clear  of  trifling  local  and  temporary  affairs, 


no         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF    CHRISTIANITY 

and  dealt  only  with  the  large  matters  of  the  human 
soul.  Especially  did  he  keep  his  teachings  clear 
of  human  opinions  that  have  become  obsolete. 
The  teachings  of  any  ancient  author,  Plato,  Aris- 
totle or  Cicero,  are  obsolete  in  many  a  page 
because  they  contain  views  that  have  long  since 
been  left  behind  by  the  progress  of  human  thought. 
Science  has  put  them  in  a  pitiable  plight,  except  as 
specimens  of  earlier  stages  of  human  development. 
But  none  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus  are  thus  out  of 
date  and  left  behind.  His  words  are  ever  abreast 
and  in  advance  of  the  age,  for  they  express  univer- 
sal truth;  and  still  stands  true  his  sublime  saying, 
"Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  my  words 
shall  not  pass  away." 

HI.  Passing  on  to  the  substance  of  Christ's 
teachings,  we  may  group  them  under  two  main 
heads;  they  form  a  curve  sweeping  around  two 
foci.  First,  Christ  revealed  God  and  brought  him 
to  man.  God  was  known  in  the  world,  but  Jesus 
threw  a  great  beam  of  light  upon  his  character  and 
his  relation  to  men  that  marked  an  epoch  in  the  re- 
ligious history  of  the  world.  All  previous  revelation 
and  knowledge  of  God  were  dim  morning  twilight 
compared  with  this  sunburst  and  noonday  splendor. 
Jesus  set  God  in  the  light  of  his  own  pure  and  in- 
tense holiness  and  revealed  the  rich  beauty  of  his 


THE  TEACHING  OF   CHRIST  III 

character  as  it  streamed  through  his  own  soul.  He 
revealed  God  as  the  Father.  This  name  was 
known  before.  Old  Testament  prophets  had  uttered 
it,  but  it  swelled  into  new  depths  and  tenderness 
and  music  as  it  came  from  the  lips  of  Jesus.  The 
old  views  of  God  as  an  oriental  despot  or  blind 
and  relentless  fate  melted  into  this  universal  and 
loving  human  relation.  This  brought  God  into 
kinship  and  fellowship  with  man;  and  as  Jesus 
illustrated  this  divine  Fatherhood  in  his  own  person 
and  life  he  enormously  illuminated  and  enriched 
the  world  with  this  teaching.  Yet  he  also  set  God 
upon  his  throne  as  King,  and  the  Kingdom  of 
God  was  a  central  fact  in  his  teaching,  the  phrase 
occurring  in  the  Gospels  more  than  one  hundred 
times.  This  brought  God  into  the  world  as  its 
ruler  and  made  his  will,  not  an  arbitrary  and  des- 
potic, but  the  wise  and  loving  law  of  life.  Amidst 
the  anarchy  and  ruin  wrought  by  sin  in  this  world 
he  is  erecting  a  new  kingdom  of  righteousness  and 
peace  into  which  he  is  gathering  all  redeemed 
loyal  souls. 

IV.  The  other  focus  around  which  swept  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  was  man.  He  set  forth  three 
main  facts  about  man:  his  infinite  worth,  his  lost 
condition  in  sin,  and  his  redemption.  Jesus  put 
a  new  evaluation  on  man  in  a  world  in  which  he 


112         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

was  held  cheap.  Man  had  been  owned  as  a  slave 
and  sold  as  a  commodity,  but  when  Jesus  ex- 
claimed, "How  much  then  is  a  man  of  more  value 
than  a  sheep!"  he  overstrained  language  with  the 
burden  of  his  meaning  and  lifted  man  to  a  higher 
level  of  worth  than  he  had  ever  before  attained. 
This  new  appraisement  of  man  has  gone  deep  into 
history  and  raised  human  worth  all  over  the 
world.  Yet  no  teacher  had  ever  seen  the  depth 
of  sin  into  which  man  had  fallen  as  Jesus  did. 
He  not  only  condemned  the  more  open  and  fla- 
grant sins  of  men,  but  also  tore  off  their  masks  of 
hypocrisy  and  respectability  and  exposed  their 
inner  and  secret  sins  of  the  spirit,  often  more 
deadly  than  the  sins  of  the  flesh.  But  he  saw 
sin  only  to  have  mercy  on  it  and  to  offer  to  the 
sinner  his  forgiving  and  cleansing  grace.  He 
taught  that  God  only  can  forgive  sin,  and  then 
he  himself  exercised  this  divine  authority.  How- 
ever deep  a  man  had  fallen  and  hopeless  seemed 
his  degradation,  Jesus  could  lift  him  out  of  his  pit 
and  throw  open  the  door  of  God's  mercy  wide 
enough  to  let  him  come  back  and  be  cleansed. 
He  wrought  out  a  process  of  redemption  that  is 
sufficient  to  forgive  and  cleanse  the  sins  of  the 
world.  And  his  final  picture  of  the  redeemed  por- 
trays them  fully  restored  to  the  image  of  God  and 


THE  TEACHING  OF   CHRIST  II3 

ushered  spotless  into  his  eternal  fellowship  in  glory. 
V.  The  unique  feature  in  the  teachings  of 
Christ  is  that  they  all  converge  upon  himself  and 
derive  their  power  from  his  person.  In  this  re- 
spect he  stands  entirely  apart  from  other  great  eth- 
ical teachers,  who  simply  unfold  the  truth  to  men 
and  bid  them  to  believe  and  practise  it.  But  the 
message  of  Jesus  was,  not.  Believe  this  truth,  Fol- 
low this  path,  but.  Believe  on  me.  Follow  me.  The 
truth  he  taught  had  been  taught  by  other  teachers, 
at  least  in  its  scattered  rays:  he  not  only  com- 
bined these  rays  into  one  unbroken  beam  of  light, 
but  also  concentrated  and  embodied  them  in  his 
own  person  so  that  he  could  say,  I  am  the  truth, 
I  am  the  light.  Jesus  himself  is  the  Gospel  he 
came  to  preach ;  he  came,  as  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  said, 
not  to  preach  the  Gospel,  but  that  there  might  be  a 
Gospel  to  preach.  It  is  not  truth  that  moves  us 
so  much  as  personal  power.  The  great  person- 
alities of  history  are  its  mountain  peaks  that  pour 
down  their  streams  of  life  upon  us.  Jesus  Christ 
is  Prophet,  Priest  and  King:  truth  and  light, 
mercy  and  love,  forgiveness  and  salvation,  all 
issue  from  him  in  streams  that  redeem  the  world. 
The  teacher  is  always  greater  than  his  teaching, 
and  this  is  supremely  true  of  the  divine  Teacher 
who  is  himself  his  greatest  message :  his  truth  is 
8 


114         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

our  trust,  and  his  love  is  our  life.  This  is  why 
in  the  Epistles  of  the  New  Testament  there  is 
so  little  use  made  of  the  teachings  of  Christ  re- 
corded in  the  Gospels.  No  allusion  is  made  to 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  or  the  parables  which 
we  think  are  so  splendid  and  vital.  Hardly  ever 
is  Christ  quoted,  but  his  person  is  adored;  the 
reflected  light  is  disregarded  because  the  gaze  is 
fastened  on  the  Sun;  his  sayings  are  forgotten, 
but  Christ  himself  is  all  in  all. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  CROSS  OF   CHRIST 

We  have  come  to  the  summit  and  climax  of  re- 
demption and  are  on  its  holiest  ground.  In  its 
ethical  and  spiritual  significance  Calvary  overtops 
all  the  mountains  of  the  world,  and  is  the  central 
magnet  of  Christendom.  The  Cross  gathered  into 
its  burning  focus  all  the  converging  rays  prepar- 
atory to  redemption,  on  it  the  work  of  Christ 
culminated  in  its  greatest  intensity,  and  from  it 
bursts  the  full  splendor  of  the  Light  of  the  world. 
Its  importance  is  amply  appreciated  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  Old  Testament  gleams  with  it  in 
sacrifice  and  prophecy,  and  in  the  New  it  is  the 
dominant  fact  and  doctrine.  Its  shadow  fell  on 
Jesus  almost  from  the  beginning  of  his  ministry, 
with  increasing  definiteness  and  fulness  he  spoke 
to  his  disciples  of  the  coming  tragedy,  about  one- 
third  of  the  whole  amount  of  matter  in  the  four 
Gospels  is  devoted  to  the  events  connected  with  his 
crucifixion,  and  after  his  ascension,  while  his  life 
almost  drops  out  of  sight,  his  death,  together  with 

"5 


Il6         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

his  resurrection,  blazes  up  into  the  supreme  lu- 
minous fact  of  the  Gospel.  We  remember  the  great 
men  of  the  world  by  celebrating  their  births,  but 
Jesus  asked  to  be  remembered  by  his  death,  and 
this  is  the  event  that  is  commemorated  in  the 
most  sacred  and  vital  ordinance  of  his  Church. 
The  profoundest  efforts  of  Christian  thought  have 
been  given  to  the  study  of  this  fact,  but  we  never 
can  fathom  the  depths  of  its  mystery  and  can 
only  catch  glimpses  of  its  meaning;  standing  on 
this  ground  we  can  only  touch  the  hem  of  Christ's 
garments,  dyed  in  his  own  sacrificial  blood.  By 
successive  steps  let  us  endeavor  to  ascend  this 
mountain. 

I.  Christ  died  on  the  cross  as  our  example. 
He  was  a  martyr  to  truth  and  duty.  He  did  not 
die  an  inevitable  death  as  the  result  of  disease  or 
accident  or  fate,  but  laid  down  his  life  as  a  volun- 
tary act;  and  he  went  to  his  death  because  he 
would  not  accommodate  his  kingdom  and  teaching, 
spirit  and  purpose,  to  the  attitude  and  aim  of  the 
Jewish  hierarchy.  Had  he  yielded  to  their  de- 
mands he  would  have  escaped  the  cross,  and  might 
have  become  their  leader  and  a  popular  hero. 
But  he  would  not  sacrifice  or  modify  truth  and 
righteousness  to  save  his  life  and  paid  the  price 
of  his  devotion  with  his  blood.     In  pursuing  this 


THE  CROSS  OF  CHRIST  II7 

course  he  trod  the  path  that  every  soul  loyal  to 
truth  and  duty  should  follow.  "For  hereunto  were 
ye  called:  because  Christ  also  suffered  for  you, 
leaving  you  an  example,  that  ye  should  follow  his 
steps."  The  Christian  centuries  have  been  tracked 
with  the  blood  of  those  who  thus  followed  Christ, 
and  the  same  duty  rests  on  us.  It  is  true  that 
this  cross  has  been  lightened  of  some  of  its  bitter- 
est sufferings  in  Christian  lands,  but  there  are  still 
places  in  which  it  costs  blood  to  follow  Christ. 
And  even  in  Christian  countries  there  is  often  a 
call  for  sacrifice  and  suffering  in  obedience  to 
truth  and  duty.  Business,  politics,  social  life  are 
yet  often  unfriendly  and  hostile  to  the  Christian 
spirit,  and  loyal  souls  must  often  pay  a  sore  price. 
Christ  still  needs  and  demands  disciples  that  will 
follow  him  in  suffering.  Most  of  us  bear  suffering 
badly.  We  yield  to  the  world  rather  than  meet 
it  with  unflinching  face,  or  we  cry  out  under  it  as 
though  it  were  harsh  treatment  from  the  Father. 
In  invincible  devotion  to  truth,  in  patience  and 
submission  and  forgiveness  on  the  cross,  Christ 
suffered  for  us,  leaving  us  an  example. 

II.  Christ  died  to  show  us  the  love  of  God. 
We  know  and  measure  the  love  of  others  by  what 
they  do  for  us.  It  is  thus  the  children  know  the 
love  of  their  parents,  the  scholars  of  their  teachers, 


1 18         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

the  patient  of  the  physician,  and  the  country  of 
the  soldiers  that  die  for  it.  Man  often  shows 
great  love  for  his  brother  man  by  laying  down  his 
life  for  him.  The  same  test  must  apply  to  God, 
and  if  he  loves  us  we  have  a  right  to  inquire 
what  he  has  done  as  an  exhibition  and  proof 
of  his  love.  Many  are  the  manifestations  of  his 
love,  but  the  supreme  one  is  that  "God  commen- 
deth  his  own  love  toward  us,  in  that,  while  we 
were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us."  The  gift  of 
his  Son  that  he  might  enter  our  humanity  and 
be  subjected  to  all  its  humiliation  and  suffering 
and  taste  the  bitter  agonies  of  death  was  an  act 
of  love  for  us  on  the  part  of  God  infinitely  trans- 
cending any  proof  of  love  we  can  ever  give  or 
receive  among  ourselves.  In  the  Cross  of  Christ 
God  has  opened  his  heart  and  let  us  see  its  great 
bleeding  wound;  and  after  a  true  vision  of  that 
Cross  we  ought  never  to  doubt  his  love  for  us 
and  should  evermore  be  filled  with  love  for  him. 
III.  Christ  died  on  the  Cross  as  a  vicarious 
sacrifice  for  our  redemption.  The  principle  of 
vicarious  sacrifice  is  woven  into  the  whole  web  of 
the  world.  Nature  itself  is  full  of  it.  Every- 
thing is  there  laid  on  the  altar  of  sacrifice  that  it 
may  be  transmuted  into  something  higher.  The 
rocks  crumble  into  soil,  the  soil  sprouts  into  plant 


THE   CROSS  OF  CHRIST  II9 

and  flower  and  fruit,  the  fruit  passes  into  the  Ufa 
of  the  animal,  and  the  animal  into  the  life  of 
man.  Our  human  world  is  red  with  the  baptism 
of  sacrificial  blood.  We  are  members  one  of  an- 
other so  that  all  must  suffer  together  and  one  for 
another.  The  strong  must  suffer  for  the  weak, 
the  good  for  the  bad,  and  the  innocent  for  the 
guilty.  The  mother  suffers  for  the  child,  the 
righteous  father  for  his  wicked  boy,  and  the  sol- 
dier for  his  country.  The  blood  of  all  the  past 
generations  has  become  our  blessing;  their  battles 
are  now  our  victories,  and  their  pains  our  ease. 
We  can  rarely  help  another  in  need  unless  we 
are  willing  to  suffer  for  him;  and  the  degree  of 
our  suffering  will  measure  our  healing  power. 
Vicarious  suffering  has  a  strange  chemistry  by 
which  it  inspires  the  weak  and  disheartened  with 
courage,  comforts  the  penitent  and  sorrowing, 
and  melts  hardness  of  heart  into  contrition  and 
submission.  Whoever  would  enter  into  other  lives 
in  healing  ministry  must  carry  with  him  and  apply 
this  balm.  Life  everywhere  costs  life,  and  who- 
ever would  redeem  it  must  pay  this  price.  God 
himself  cannot  escape  this  law,  and  its  supreme 
manifestation  is  the  Cross  of  his  Son.  The  whole 
life  of  Christ  was  the  crowning  fulfilment  of  the 
law    of    sacrifice    that    runs    as    a    scarlet    thread 


120         THE  BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

through  the  universe,  and  his  Cross  was  the  point 
where  this  thread  is  most  deeply  dyed,  dipped  in 
his  own  blood.  He  came  into  the  world  as  a  sol- 
dier to  fight  against  sin  and  lay  down  his  life  on 
its  field;  as  a  teacher  to  lend  all  his  wisdom  and 
gentleness  and  patience  to  dull  earthly  souls  that 
they  might  begin  to  see  with  his  eyes  and  catch 
the  vision  of  God  and  a  better  life;  as  a  physician 
to  put  all  his  skill  and  healing  virtue  at  the  service 
of  sin-stricken  souls,  and  bring  them  into  penitence 
and  give  them  pardon,  cleansing  and  peace ;  as  a 
Saviour  to  give  his  life  for  the  redemption  of 
lost  men.  He  fell  into  his  grave  as  a  precious 
Corn  of  Wheat,  and  out  of  that  sacrificial  seed  is 
springing  the  multitudinous  harvest  of  saved  souls. 
IV.  There  is  a  still  deeper  substitutionary  ele- 
ment in  the  sacrifice  that  Christ  fulfilled  in  his 
life  and  death.  One  who  would  heal  or  save  a 
fellowman  cannot  achieve  his  deliverance  by  stand- 
ing off  from  him  in  aloofness  and  superiority, 
but  must  go  down  to  his  level  and  insert  himself 
into  his  condition  and  identify  himself  with  him, 
and  then  he  can  gain  his  sympathy  and  lay  hold  of 
his  heart  and  lead  him  back  into  newness  of  life. 
The  typical  illustration  of  this  law  is  the  father 
who  would  save  his  ruined  son.  If  a  father  were 
to  wrap  himself  in  his   respectability  and  refuse 


THE   CROSS  OF   CHRIST  121 

to  admit  his  son  into  his  presence  or  even  to 
recognize  him,  he  would  have  no  power  to  lead 
him  to  penitence,  but  would  only  embitter  him 
and  drive  him  deeper  into  degradation.  The 
father  must  go  to  that  son,  acknowledge  his  par- 
ental relation  to  him,  take  upon  himself  the  burden 
of  the  boy's  shame,  suffer  for  and  with  him  and 
thus  identify  himself  with  his  son:  then  he  will 
have  redemptive  power  and  can  melt  him  into 
penitence  and  lead  him  back  into  a  new  life. 
Every  human  saviour  must  thus  insert  himself 
into  the  condition  of  those  he  would  save.  Send- 
ing tracts  through  the  mails  into  the  slums  of 
cities  will  not  avail  to  redeem  those  districts:  city 
missionaries  and  settlement  workers  must  go  there 
and  live  with  those  people,  and  thus  they  may 
gain  their  confidence  and  lift  them  into  a  better 
life.  God  fulfilled  this  law  also.  He  did  not 
simply  send  us  messages  from  heaven,  but  he  sent 
his  only  begotten  Son  into  the  world,  who  emptied 
himself  and  became  flesh,  "taking  the  form  of  a 
servant,  being  made  in  the  likeness  of  men;  and 
being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled  him- 
self, becoming  obedient  even  unto  death,  yea  the 
death  of  the  Cross."  In  his  incarnation  Christ 
thus  inserted  himself  into  our  humanity  and  iden- 
tified himself  with  us  at  every  point,  that  he  might 


122         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

bear  our  sin,   suffer   for  and  with   us,   and  thus 
redeem  us  from  all  iniquity, 

V.  But  we  have  not  yet  reached  the  deepest 
point  of  this  union  of  Christ  with  man.  He  was 
not  simply  one  man  more  in  this  world,  who  suf- 
fered as  a  martyr  for  truth  and  as  a  manifestation 
of  the  love  of  God  for  us  and  a  vicarious  sacrifice 
for  human  welfare.  Other  men  have  done  this 
on  a  wide  scale  and  with  fruitful  results.  But 
Christ  is  unique  as  the  Son  of  God.  As  the  Logos, 
or  Word,  or  second  person  of  the  Trinity,  he  is  the 
Creator  of  the  world  and  Fountain  of  humanity. 
"All  things  were  made  by  him,  and  without  him 
was  not  anything  made  that  hath  been  made.  In 
him  was  life;  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men." 
While,  then,  Christ  in  his  human  nature  grew 
out  of  humanity,  yet  humanity  grew  out  of  Christ 
in  his  divine  nature.  Humanity  is  thus  the  organ- 
ism or  body  of  which  Christ  is  the  head.  This 
original  union  of  Christ  with  humanity  has  never 
been  broken,  though  it  has  been  impaired  by  human 
sin.  He  is  still  immanent  in  humanity  as  its  divine 
ground  and  is  over  it  as  its  Lord.  He  is  therefore 
the  Head  and  Representative  of  humanity,  and 
stands  responsible  for  it  before  God.  God  deals 
with  Christ  as  he  would  deal  with  man  himself. 
By   virtue   of  this   federal   relation   Christ  is   the 


THE   CROSS   OF   CHRIST  I23 

representative  Sacrifice,  who  bears  the  conse- 
quences of  human  sin,  and  the  representative 
Penitent  who  stands  smitten  before  God  and  utters 
his  sublime  Amen  to  God's  penalty.  We  are  here 
getting-  close  to  the  heart  of  this  mystery  where 
we  can  only  bow  our  heads  in  faith  and  awe. 

VI.  One  step  further  we  can  go:  the  Cross  of 
Christ  satisfies  God.  Whatever  God  does  must 
satisfy  his  nature,  otherwise  he  would  not  do  it. 
The  Cross  of  his  Son  satisfies  his  whole  nature. 
In  particular  it  satisfies  his  love.  A  father,  seeing 
his  son  in  the  way  of  sin  and  ruin,  cannot  be  con- 
tent to  let  him  go  on  in  his  way,  but  is  impelled 
by  all  the  affections  and  motives  of  his  heart  to 
go  out  after  him  and  do  his  utmost  to  reclaim 
him ;  and  such  sacrifice,  however  costly  and  pain- 
ful it  may  be,  satisfies  his  fatherly  love.  The 
same  satisfaction  is  experienced  in  the  heart  of 
God  as  he  pours  out  his  life  as  a  sacrifice  for  the 
redemption  of  his  lost  human  children.  And  the 
same  sacrifice  satisfies  his  righteousness.  It  is  the 
express  and  repeated  teaching  of  Scripture  that 
"God  set  forth"  Christ  Jesus  "to  be  a  propitiation, 
through  faith,  by  his  blood,  to  shew  his  righteous- 
ness, that  he  might  himself  be  just,  and  the  justi- 
fier  of  him  that  believeth."  It  is  a  legal,  ethical 
and  psychological  principle  in  our  own  personal 


124         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

and  social  constitution  that  sin  should  bear  its 
penalty  and  that  righteousness  demands  it.  Our 
own  hearts  are  not  satisfied  in  the  presence  of  guilt 
until  we  know  this  demand  has  been  met.  This 
ineradicable  element  in  our  constitution  is  a  faint 
shadow  of  the  infinite  righteousness  of  God,  who 
cannot  look  upon  sin  with  any  allowance  and  can 
be  satisfied  in  his  own  nature  only  when  its  guilt 
has  been  expiated.  The  sacrifice  of  his  Son  as 
the  Representative  of  man  meets  all  the  demands 
of  justice  and  satisfies  his  holy  righteousness. 
"God  is  eternally  satisfied  with  the  suffering  of 
love  for  sinners  and  desires  that  it  may  take  the 
place  of  all  other  suffering  for  sin."^  But  it  is 
his  own  mercy  and  love  that  provide  the  sacrifice, 
so  that  in  the  Cross  of  his  Son  "Mercy  and  truth 
are  met  together;  Righteousness  and  truth  have 
kissed  each  other." 

The  doctrine  of  the  atonement  has  been  stated 
in  commercial  terms  of  purchase  and  sale  that 
have  made  it  repellent  to  many  minds.  The  justice 
of  God  has  been  represented  as  vindictive  venge- 
ance. But  such  mercenary  terms  and  barbarous 
motives  have  no  place  in  this  doctrine.  The  Cross 
of  Christ  is  the  working  out  of  the  same  prin- 
ciples in  the  heart  of  God  that  are  experienced 

*W.  N.  Clarke,  Outline  of  Christian  Theology,  p.  348. 


THE   CROSS   OF   CHRIST  I25 

in  the  fatherly  human  heart.  God  must  suffer 
for  and  with  his  children  in  order  to  redeem  them 
and  yet  vindicate  and  satisfy  his  own  nature,  and 
he  has  experienced  this  suffering  from  the  begin- 
ning of  human  sin.  The  Cross  on  Calvary  was 
only  an  outcropping  or  momentary  glimpse  of  the 
inner  and  eternal  atonement  in  the  heart  of  God, 
a  reflection  of  "the  Lamb  that  hath  been  slain 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world."  This  is  "the 
great  mystery  of  godliness"  by  which  He  who  was 
manifested  in  the  flesh  was  "justified  in  the  spirit." 
We  cannot  go  closer  and  pluck  the  heart  out  of 
this  mystery,  but  we  see  far  enough  into  the  heart 
of  God  to  respect  and  reverence  his  righteousness, 
marvel  at  his  mercy,  trust  his  grace  and  praise  his 
love. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  VIRGIN  BIRTH  OF  CHRIST 

We  now  come  to  the  two  great  miracles  that 
are  the  buttresses  on  which  the  arch  of  Christ's 
life  stands:  his  virgin  birth  and  his  resurrection. 

I.  The  virgm  birth  has  encountered  special 
opposition,  not  only  from  those  who  reject  all 
supernaturalism,  but  also  from  those  who  admit 
other  miracles  in  the  Gospels.  The  supposed  scanty 
evidence  for  it  is  one  reason  for  this  reluctance  to 
accept  it,  but  this  hesitation  appears  also  to  be 
due  in  some  measure  to  the  apparently  tremendous 
presumption  that  lies  against  it.  Human  gener- 
ation through  two  parents  is  such  a  universal  and 
persistent  fact  that  it  seems  hard  for  some  minds 
to  believe  that  this  line  of  descent  has  ever  been 
interrupted  with  a  virgin  birth.  All  miracles,  how- 
ever, are  equally  easy  to  omnipotence,  and  the 
virgin  birth  is  no  more  unique  an  exception  to  the 
general  course  of  physical  events  and  calls  for  no 
greater  power  to  produce  it  than  a  resurrection. 
And  the  fact  is  not  so  exceptional  and  extraordinary 
126 


THE  VIRGIN   BIRTH   OF   CHRIST  12/ 

as  it  may  seem,  for  through  the  lower  portion  of 
the  scale  of  life  parthenogenesis  or  virgin  birth  is 
common.  "As  for  virgin  procreation,"  says  Prof. 
Huxley,  "it  is  not  only  clearly  conceivable,  but 
modern  biology  recognizes  it  as  an  everyday 
occurrence."  This  fact  and  teaching  of  modern 
science  should  go  far  towards  removing  any  special 
prejudice  against  this  miracle. 

II.  The  Scriptural  evidence  for  the  virgin  birth 
of  Christ  is  not  extensive,  but  it  is  definite  and 
positive  and  very  weighty.  Mark  passes  over  the 
entire  period  of  Christ's  life  up  to  the  beginning 
of  his  public  ministry,  and  John  also,  after  setting 
forth  the  pre-existence  of  Christ,  opens  his  account 
of  the  earthly  life  of  Christ  with  his  appearance  at 
John's  baptism.  The  fact  that  it  did  not  fall  within 
the  plan  of  the  writers  of  these  Gospels  to  record 
the  virgin  birth  does  not  imply  their  disbelief  in 
it,  for  the  same  silence  would  imply  they  did  not 
believe  Jesus  was  born  at  all.  Matthew  and  Luke 
record  the  virgin  birth,  with  important  differences. 
Matthew  evidently  tells  the  story  from  the  point 
of  view  of  Joseph.  He  relates  how  Mary  was 
betrothed  to  Joseph  and  the  sore  perplexity  Joseph 
was  in  when  he  discovered,  before  the  formal 
marriage  had  taken  place,  that  Mary  was  with 
child;  but  while  he  thought  on  these  things  an 


128         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream 
and  told  him  not  to  fear  to  take  Mary  as  his  wife, 
"for  that  which  is  conceived  in  her  is  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  These  were  facts  that  could  have 
been  known  to  Joseph  alone,  and  therefore  this 
version  of  the  affair  must  have  come  from  him. 
It  is  equally  evident  that  Luke's  version  tells  the 
story  from  Mary's  point  of  view,  and  gives  facts 
that  could  have  been  known  only  to  her.  He 
.narrates  the  visit  of  the  angel  to  the  virgin  Mary 
jEfter  her  betrothal  to  Joseph  and  his  revelation 
'to  her  that  "the  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon  thee, 
and  the  power  of  the  Highest  shall  overshadow 
thee :  wherefore  also  that  which  is  to  be  born  shall 
be  called  holy,  the  Son  of  God."  Mary  was  great- 
ly troubled  at  first  with  the  revelation  of  the  angel, 
but  at  length  she  said  with  beautiful  submission, 
"Behold,  the  handmaid  of  the  Lord;  be  it  unto 
me  according  to  thy  word." 

HL  Examination  of  these  narratives  discloses 
strong  evidences  of  their  credibility.  They  are 
integral  parts  of  the  Gospels  in  which  they  are 
found  and  bear  no  marks  of  being  interpolations. 
They  cannot  be  dissected  out  of  these  writings 
without  leaving  gaps  that  impair  their  complete- 
ness and  consistency.  The  narratives  are  remark- 
able   for    their    simplicity,    candor,    modesty    and 


THE  VIRGIN   BIRTH   OF  CHRIST  I29 

evident  truthfulness.  They  are  not  poetical  or 
mythical  in  style  and  spirit,  but  are  words  of  sober- 
ness and  honest  conviction.  Their  authors  were 
competent  and  trustworthy  men.  Luke  was  a 
physician,  which  implies  special  competency  to 
judge  of  this  fact,  and  he  tells  us  in  the  preface  to 
his  Gospel  that  he  had  derived  his  materials  from 
those  who  "from  the  beginning  were  eye-wit- 
nesses," and  that  he  had  "traced  the  course  of  all 
things  accurately  from  the  first."  The  narratives 
themselves  contain  facts  of  such  a  personal  and 
private  nature  that  they  must  have  come  from 
the  inner  circle  of  the  holy  family.  These  were 
people  of  primitive  faith  and  piety,  belonging 
to  that  group  of  humble  but  devout  Jews  who 
were  "looking  for  the  consolation  of  Israel,"  and 
these  portions  of  these  Gospels  bear  the  impress 
of  this  class  in  their  simple  and  archaic  style. 
These  stories  were  evidently  told  by  godly  Jews 
whose  saintly  souls  were  steeped  in  the  pietistic 
spirit  of  the  Old  Testament.  They  did  not  tell 
them  as  wonders  of  which  they  were  proud,  but 
as  mysterious  realities  which  had  happened  in  their 
experience.  We  cannot  tear  these  narratives  out 
of  the  Gospels  without  mutilating  and  discrediting 
them.  They  bear  the  inimitable  marks  of  honesty 
and  truth. 


130         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

IV.  There  are  no  definite  references  and  only 
veiled  allusions  to  this  fact  in  the  other  books  of 
the  New  Testament,  such  as  Paul's  statement 
(Galatians  4:4)  that  "God  sent  forth  his  Son, 
born  of  a  woman."  Much  has  been  made  of  this 
silence  as  though  it  implied  ignorance  of  or  disbe- 
lief in  the  virgin  birth.  This  inference  is  not  well 
founded.  Paul  makes  little  reference  to  the  life 
of  Christ  or  to  his  teachings :  the  Person  and 
Cross  and  Resurrection  of  Christ  fill  his  vision; 
it  cannot  be  inferred,  therefore,  that  he  did  not 
know  of  or  believe  in  the  ministry  of  Jesus.  The 
silence  of  the  Acts  and  Epistles  as  to  the  virgin 
birth,  which  at  first  looks  so  ominous  to  faith  in  this 
fact,  admits  of  a  perfectly  natural  explanation; 
in  fact,  this  silence  is  just  what  we  should  expect. 
The  virgin  birth  was  not  a  public  event  in  the  life 
of  Jesus  and  was  not  preachable.  In  its  very 
nature  it  was  a  private  and  sacred  fact,  not  to  be 
proclaimed  from  the  housetops.  In  this  respect  it 
stands  at  the  opposite  pole  from  the  resurrection, 
which  was  and  is  a  public  fact  to  be  blazed  abroad 
among  all  men.  The  virgin  birth  was  not  a 
central  support  of  the  whole  Gospel,  as  the  resur- 

;  rection  was  and  is.  We  do  not  think  belief  in  the 
virgin  birth  is  now  essential  to  faith  in  the  Gospel ; 

'  in  this  respect  it  does  not  rank  with  the  resur- 


THE  VIRGIN  BIRTH   OF  CHRIST  13I 

rection,  though  if  this  birth  is  a  fact,  as  we  beHeve 
it  is,  it  is  certainly  of  great  importance.  But  it  is 
for  private  faith  and  is  not  preachable,  and  Paul  did 
just  what  we  would  expect  him  to  do  and  what  we 
do  when  he  passed  it  by  in  silence  in  his  public 
ministry. 

V.  It  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  account 
for  the  presence  of  this  narrative  in  the  Gospels 
on  any  other  theory  than  its  historic  truth.  There 
was  no  definite  prediction  of  such  a  birth  for  the 
Messiah  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  Jews  had 
no  such  expectation.  The  Jews  themselves  would 
not  have  invented  any  such  theory,  for  with  their 
intense  regard  for  the  honor  of  the  marriage 
relation  a  birth  out  of  wedlock  was  abhorrent  to 
them.  The  story  could  not  have  got  into  their 
writings  from  heathen  sources,  for  such  a  story 
from  such  an  origin  would  have  been  to  them 
doubly  abhorrent.  It  did  not  grow  up  as  a  myth, 
for  there  was  not  time  for  this,  and  it  bears  no 
marks  of  such  origin.  Its  presence  in  the  narra- 
tives is  inexplicable,  except  as  a  fact. 

VI.  The  fact  of  the  virgin  birth  is  introduced 
into  this  book  at  this  late  point  because  the  main 
ground  for  faith  in  it  is  Christ  himself.     While 

'  the  virgin  birth  in  a  degree  supports  the  divinity 
of  Christ,  yet  in  a  larger  degree  the  divinity  of 


132         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

Christ  supports  the  virgin  birth.  Thrust  this  mir- 
acle at  us  the  first  thing  and  we  may  shy  at  it; 
but  it  is  easy  to  beHeve  in  it  after  we  believe  in 
him.  If  it  is  not  necessary  to  explain,  it  at  least 
is  congruous  with  the  sinlessness  of  Christ,  and  it 
matches  his  whole  character.  It  is  fitting  that  the 
Son  of  God  should  have  a  unique  entrance  into  as 
well  as  a  unique  exit  from  this  world.  The  Church 
laid  hold  of  this  fact  in  its  earliest  creed,  and  all 
attempts  to  dislodge  it  from  the  faith  of  Christen- 
dom have  failed;  and  for  these  reasons  we  still 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord,  "Who  was  con- 
ceived by  the  Holy  Ghost,  Born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary." 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE    RESURRECTION    OF    CHRIST 

The  resurrection  of  Christ  is  the  rock  on  which 
rests  the  central  column  that  sustains  the  whole 
structure  of  historic  Christianity.  Remove  this 
foundation,  and  the  entire  fabric  falls  into  ruin. 
Paul  himself  staked  the  whole  Gospel  upon  it: 
"If  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching  vain, 
and  your  faith  is  also  vain."  No  resurrection 
means  no  Christ,  but  a  risen  Jesus  means  a  divine 
Lord  and  mighty  Saviour.  Around  and  against 
this  rock  the  waves  of  criticism  have  rolled  and 
surged  for  centuries.  No  other  event  in  history 
has  been  subjected  to  such  thorough  and  keen 
investigation.  The  ablest  intellects  have  supported 
or  attacked  it,  and  the  most  impartial  and  pitiless 
light  has  been  poured  upon  it.  An  enormous  liter- 
ature has  grown  up  around  it.  Yet  it  stands 
unmoved   and   shows   no   signs   of   disintegration. 

I.  The  event  was  forced  into  the  light  at  the 
time  it  occurred.  There  are  miracles  recorded  in 
the    Bible    that    happened    in    obscure    conditions. 

133 


134         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

They  derive  their  support  from  the  general  web 
of  divine  history  in  which  they  are  woven,  and 
little  or  no  individual  evidence  could  be  adduced 
for  them  taken  singly.  The  resurrection  of  Christ 
stands  on  a  very  different  basis.  This  thing  was  not 
done  in  a  comer,  but  took  place  in  the  full  light  of 
day,  under  a  blaze  of  publicity,  and  is  supported 
by  many  witnesses  and  converging  lines  of  proof. 
The  New  Testament  is  saturated  with  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  strategic  position  and  critical 
importance  of  this  fact,  and  pours  around  it  a 
flood  of  light  such  as  illuminates  no  other  event  in 
the  Bible. 

II.  The  Scripture  evidence  for  this  fact  is  abun- 
dant, definite,  consistent,  competent,  trustworthy, 
convincing  and  conclusive.  It  is  narrated  in  all 
of  the  four  Gospels,  with  such  differences  as  might 
be  expected  from  accounts  that  are  more  or  less 
independent  and  fragmentary.  The  scholars  find 
some  difficulty  in  fitting  the  narratives  smoothly 
together,  but  this  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that 
some  of  the  pieces  are  missing,  and  something 
also  must  be  allowed  to  individual  points  of  view. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  Jesus  Christ  was  crucified, 
dead  and  buried.  Three  days  after  his  burial  some 
of  the  devoted  women  went  to  his  tomb  expecting 
to  find  his  body  and  prepared  to  anoint  it,  but  they 


THE   RESURRECTION   OF   CHRIST  I35 

were  amazed  to  find  the  tomb  empty,  and  presently 
they  saw  Christ  himself.  Five  different  appear- 
ances of  the  risen  Christ  on  the  day  of  the  resur- 
rection are  recorded:  first,  to  Mary  Magdalene 
early  in  the  morning  near  the  sepulchre;  second, 
to  the  other  women  soon  after  in  the  same  place ; 
third,  to  Peter  in  the  morning;  fourth,  to  two 
disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus;  fifth,  to  the 
assembled  disciples,  except  Thomas,  in  an  upper 
room  in  Jerusalem  in  the  evening.  Six  later 
appearances  are  recorded,  making  eleven  in  all. 
These  witnesses  were  numerous  and  competent. 
Altogether  they  numbered  more  than  five  hundred. 
The  eleven  disciples  were  with  Jesus  during  his 
ministry  and  had  become  familiar  with  his  form 
and  features  and  voice  and  knew  him  as  a  friend. 
They  were  men  of  good  abiUty  and  sound  judg- 
ment; not  learned  men,  it  is  true,  but  practical 
business  men  whom  it  would  not  be  easy  to  deceive 
on  a  matter  of  fact.  They  saw  Jesus  crucified 
and  dead  on  the  cross,  and  buried  in  his  tomb  of 
rock,  sealed  up  with  a  great  stone.  On  the  third 
day  after  his  burial  they  testify  that  Christ 
appeared  amongst  them  and  was  with  them  for  a 
period  of  forty  days.  During  this  time  they  were 
frequently  with  him  and  conversed  with  him,  and 
used  all  tests  to  assure  themselves  of  his  actual 


136         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

personality  and  presence.  This  is  a  body  of  testi- 
mony that  is  competent  to  estabHsh  the  reahty  of 
this  event. 

III.  The  most  remarkable  fact  about  these 
witnesses  is  that  they  were  not  expecting  a  resur- 
rection, at  first  disbelieved  in  it  themselves,  and 
were  convinced  of  it  only  after  the  most  searching 
investigation  and  tests  and  the  most  indubitable 
proofs.  The  most  generally  accepted  and  plausible 
theory  adopted  by  those  who  reject  the  reality  of 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  is,  that  his  disciples, 
under  the  influence  of  their  passionate  devotion  to 
him,  came  to  have  a  subjective  vision,  illusion  of 
delusion,  which  led  them  to  believe  that  they  had 
seen  him.  But  this  theory  is  rendered  psycholog 
ically  impossible  by  the  state  of  their  minds 
Such  visions  or  illusions  can  grow  up  only  in  minds 
that  already  have  some  obsession  or  prepossession, 
in  their  favor;  they  demand  congenial  soil  and 
propitious  circumstances.  Nothing  of  the  kind  but 
quite  the  contrary  existed  in  the  case  of  the 
disciples.  While  Jesus  had  spoken  to  them  of  his 
resurrection,  yet  they  seem  not  to  have  understood 
him,  and  no  such  expectation  was  in  their  minds. 
His  death  was  a  disaster  totally  unexpected  by 
them  and  was  instantly  followed  by  the  utter  col- 
lapse of  all  their  hopes.     They  had  trusted  that 


THE   RESURRECTION   OF   CHRIST  1 37 

Jesus  was  he  who  would  redeem  Israel,  setting  up 
an  earthly  kingdom  with  Jerusalem  as  its  capital 
and  themselves  in  its  chief  offices,  but  his  cruci- 
fixion was  a  death-blow  to  any  such  hope  and 
smote  them  into  the  dust.  Bewildered  and  blinded 
by  this  cruel  disappointment,  they  thought  that  all 
was  over.  It  was  as  impossible  that  a  vision  or  illu- 
sion of  a  risen  Christ  should  suddenly  grow  out  of 
this  state  of  mind  as  that  a  rose  should  grow  out 
of  a  rock,  or  light  shine  out  of  darkness.  Not 
only  so,  but  when  their  Lord  was  reported  risen 
they  refused  to  believe  the  story  and  pronounced  it 
an  idle  tale.  Their  unbelief  mockingly  said  to  them : 

Ye    poor    deluded    youths    go    home, 
Mend    the   old    nets   ye    left   to    roam, 
Tie  the  split  oar,  patch  the  torn  sail: 
It    was    indeed    an    "idle    tale" — • 
He  was  not  risen! 

These  disciples  themselves  were  the  hardest  of 
men  to  convince  of  this  fact.  Thomas  held  out  in 
his  unbelief  for  eight  days  and  was  persuaded 
only  by  a  physical  demonstration.  These  facts 
render  subjective  illusion  impossible,  add  immense 
weight  to  the  testimony  of  the  witnesses,  and  put 
this  event  on  solid  ground. 

IV.     A  witness  in  this  case  of  special  directness 
and  weight  is  the  apostle  Paul.    He  was  a  man  of 


138         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

genius  and  scholarship,  who  has  left  his  mark  on 
the  ages,  and  from  every  point  of  view  is  one  of 
the  great  minds  of  the  world.  At  first  he  was 
a  bitter  enemy  of  Jesus  Christ  and  was  trying  to 
stamp  his  name  out  in  blood.  He  repeatedly  tells 
us  the  story  of  his  conversion  at  which  Christ 
appeared  to  him  revealed  in  a  burst  of  heavenly 
splendor.  This  was  within  three  years  after  the 
death  of  Christ,  and  after  three  years  passed  in 
meditation  Paul  went  up  to  Jerusalem  and  spent 
fifteen  days  with  Peter  and  James,  the  brother  of 
Jesus  (Galatians  1:17-19).  What  did  these  men 
talk  about  during  those  two  weeks?  Specially 
about  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  we  may  be  sure. 
Thus  within  six  years  after  the  event,  Paul,  hav- 
ing had  a  personal  experience  in  which  he  believed 
he  saw  the  risen  Christ,  investigated  the  facts  as 
to  his  resurrection  on  the  ground  in  company  with 
eye-witnesses;  and  he  tells  us  these  facts  in  an 
epistle  the  genuineness  of  which  is  undoubted. 
Does  not  this  take  us  back  close  to  this  event 
and  give  us  indisputable  testimony?  In  another 
undoubted  epistle  Paul  gives  us  a  detailed  list  of 
witnesses  to  the  fact  of  the  resurrection,  adds  his 
own  testimony,  and  solemnly  asserts  that  "if  Christ 
be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching  vain,  and  your 
faith  is  also  vain.    Yea,  and  we  are  found  false 


THE   RESURRECTION   OF   CHRIST  I39 

witnesses  of  God;  because  we  have  testified  of 
God  that  he  raised  up  Christ:  whom  he  raised  not 
up,  if  so  be  that  the  dead  rise  not"  (i  Corin- 
thians 15:1-20).  Here  is  a  man  of  great  abiHty 
and  logical  mind,  a  trained  lawyer,  a  man  of  lofty 
character  and  distinguished  services,  one  of  the 
great  figures  of  history,  who  virtually  puts  himself 
on  oath  and  with  a  solemn  sense  of  his  respon- 
sibility to  his  own  age  and  to  coming  ages  swears 
to  the  reality  of  this  event.  How  many  events, 
even  of  historic  significance,  can  produce  such 
testimony  ? 

V.  These  witnesses  all  acted  out  their  belief 
in  this  event.  Plunged  into  utter  despair  by  the 
death  of  Jesus,  they  at  first  gave  up  all  as  lost. 
But  suddenly  within  three  days  these  scattered 
and  fleeing  disciples  were  transformed  into  master- 
ful men,  and  began  to  preach  with  irresistible 
power  that  their  Lord  was  risen.  Persecution 
instantly  arose,  and  they  bore  their  testimony  at 
the  risk  and  cost  of  life  itself.  Yet  they  persisted 
in  declaring  their  knowledge  of  this  fact  and  not 
one  of  them  ever  retracted  it.  Finally,  they  sealed 
their  testimony  with  their  blood.  Only  one  of  the 
disciples  escaped  a  violent  death.  They  were  put 
to  death  because  they  testified  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  risen  from  the  dead.     Men  will  die  to  main- 


I40  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF    CHRISTIANITY 

tain  a  fact  they  know  to  be  true,  but  they  will  not 
die  to  maintain  an  alleged  fact  they  know  to  be 
false.  The  tremendous  revolution  that  came  over 
these  disciples  and  clothed  them  with  such  mighty 
power  and  the  solemn  seal  they  set  to  their  testi- 
mony are  explicable  only  on  the  theory  that  they 
told  the  truth. 

VI.  Historical  events  gather  credibility  from 
their  environment.  They  must  fit  into  the  facts 
of  their  time  and  be  of  a  piece  with  the  general 
web  of  events  to  which  they  belong.  If  they  are 
unrelated  to  such  events  and  refuse  to  match  them 
they  are  thereby  discredited,  or  rendered  difficult 
of  proof;  but  if  they  bear  the  same  relation  to  their 
environment  as  a  key  to  a  lock,  their  proof  becomes 
relatively  easy.  The  resurrection  of  Christ  is  a 
key  to  the  great  lock  of  history  and  of  divine 
purpose  in  the  world.  The  ages  prepared  the  way 
and  grew  into  readiness  for  it.  It  was  the  outcome 
and  climax  of  a  great  plan  that  was  foreshadowed 
in  prophecy  and  developed  in  history.  The 
redemption  of  the  world  is  a  goal  that  calls  for 
special  means  and  justifies  extraordinary  events. 
Granted  that  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave 
his  only  begotten  Son  to  redeem  it,  his  resurrection 
from  the  dead  as  a  link  in  the  chain  of  this 
redemption    becomes    logical    and    natural.     The 


THE   RESURRECTION   OF   CHRIST  I4I 

resurrection  is  the  logical  completion  and  glori- 
ous crown  of  the  Cross,  without  which  the  Cross 
would  have  been  final  defeat.  Torn  out  of  its 
place  it  would  be  hard  to  prove,  but  in  its  place 
it  is  seen  to  be  worthy  of  belief.  If  this  event 
were  offered  to  us  as  a  mere  wonder  we  might 
reject  it;  but  as  part  of  a  glorious  plan  we  are 
constrained  to  accept  it.  The  character  of  Christ 
is  also  a  guarantee  of  this  event.  That  such  an 
One  should  be  bound  of  death  and  cast  as  rubbish 
to  the  void  would  put  all  our  theories  of  the  world 
and  of  God  to  intellectual  confusion.  It  was  a 
perfectly  natural  and  fitting  thing  for  him  to  burst 
asunder  the  rocky  jaws  of  the  tomb  and  come 
forth  in  the  fulness  of  life.  It  would  be  hard 
for  us  to  believe  this  of  others,  but  it  is  easy  to 
believe  it  of  Him. 

VII.  History  matches  this  event.  The  liter- 
ature of  the  New  Testament  issued  out  of  it.  The 
Gospels,  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the  Epistles 
have  on  them  the  marks  of  evident  competency 
and  honesty.  They  were  written,  not  for  contro- 
versial purposes  to  prove  a  theory,  but  as  the 
natural  expression  of  a  belief  and  a  life.  Ques- 
tions of  the  genuineness  and  integrity  of  these 
documents  are  important,  but  the  case  does  not  rest 
on  these  matters.     This  literature  did  not  create 


142         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

belief  in  the  resurrection,  but  belief  in  the  resur- 
rection created  this  literature.  These  books  are 
simply  straws  in  the  wind  which  show  which  way 
it  is  blowing,  or  they  are  bits  of  literature  floating 
on  a  deep  and  powerful  current  of  history  that 
came  flowing  out  of  this  event.  Not  only  these 
books  issued  from  this  fountain,  but  the  whole 
Christian  movement  and  all  these  nineteen  cen- 
turies of  Christian  history.  The  Gospel  ran 
around  the  Mediterranean  shore,  undermined  the 
Roman  Empire,  toppled  over  the  whole  outworn 
fabric  of  the  ancient  world,  and  breathed  into 
humanity  a  new  spirit  that  has  shaped  all  our 
modern  ideals  and  institutions.  Christendom  is  a 
mighty  monument  that  requires  an  adequate  origin 
and  cause,  as  certainly  as  the  great  Mound  at 
Waterloo,  or  the  Arch  of  Titus  in  Rome.  Some- 
thing happened  back  there  on  the  first  Easter 
morning  that  is  great  and  powerful  enough  and 
divine  enough  to  account  for  all  these  conse- 
quences, and  this  event  and  cause  we  believe  was 
nothing  less  or  else  than  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ.  On  this  rock  we  rest  our  faith  to-day, 
and  on  it  is  rising  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the 
world. 

The  judgment  of  Dr.  Thomas  Arnold,  a  master 
of  historical  inquiry  and  author  of  the  History  of 


THE   RESURRECTION   OF   CHRIST  I43 

Rome,  may  be  held  as  pronouncing  the  verdict 
of  impartial  investigation  when  he  said  to  his  boys 
at  Rugby:  "The  evidence  of  our  Lord's  life  and 
death  and  resurrection  may  be  and  often  has  been 
shown  to  be  satisfactory.  It  is  good  according  to 
the  common  rules  for  distinguishing  good  evidence 
from  bad.  Thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of 
persons  have  gone  over  it  piece  by  piece,  as  care- 
fully as  ever  judge  summed  up  in  a  most  important 
cause.  I  have  myself  done  it  many  times  over, 
not  to  persuade  others,  but  to  satisfy  myself.  I 
have  been  used  for  many  years  to  study  the 
history  of  other  times,  and  to  examine  and  weigh 
the  evidence  of  those  who  have  written  about  them, 
and  I  know  of  no  one  fact  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind which  is  proved  by  better  and  fuller  evidence 
of  every  sort  than  the  great  sign  which  God  has 
given  us  that  Christ  died  and  rose  again  from  the 
dead." 


CHAPTER  XXI 


CHRIST  IN  HISTORY 


"By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  Doctrine 
must  be  tested  by  deed,  character  by  conduct, 
personality  by  power.  Christ  himself  issued  this 
challenge  and  must  abide  by  its  verdict.  Nearly 
nineteen  hundred  years  have  passed  since  he  left 
the  world :  what  has  become  of  his  claims  and 
prophecies,  has  promise  been  matched  by  perform- 
ance, how  stands  his  case  in  the  world  to-day? 
History  has  a  way  of  burying  the  dreamers  of  a 
day  and  their  little  dreams,  but  dreamers  of  the 
ages  and  the  seed-truths  of  the  world  push  their 
way  up  through  the  centuries  and  dominate  all 
time. 

I.  The  unique  and  tremendous  fact  about  Jesus 
Christ,  severing  him  broadly  from  all  his  human 
kind,  is  that  he  has  always  been  regarded  by  his 
followers  as  being  still  in  the  world.  Other  great 
prophets  of  humanity  have  lived  their  lives  and 
then  dropped  into  their  graves ;  and  while  their 
teaching  and  influence  survived  for  a  time,  yet 
144 


CHRIST   IN    HISTORY  145 

their  personal  presence  had  vanished,  and  with  it 
much  of  their  personal  magnetism  and  power,  as 
the  queen  of  beauty  withdraws  her  loveliness  with 
her  into  the  tomb,  and  the  singer  in  her  death 
hushes  forever  all  the  magic  melody  of  her  song. 
But  Christendom  has  never  thought  of  Christ  as 
gone.  He  told  his  disciples  that  he  would  be  with 
them  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world,  and 
there  has  ever  been  with  his  followers  a  Presence 
they  have  felt  as  the  fulfilment  of  this  promise. 
Christ  has  thus  perpetuated  his  personality  in  the 
world  and  been  a  living  factor  in  all  its  unfolding 
events  and  centuries.  Death,  that  retires  all  other 
men,  only  ushered  him  more  widely  into  the  world. 
His  death  was  his  birth  into  humanity,  and  all 
subsequent  history  has  felt  the  throb  of  his  Spirit 
and  the  shaping  power  of  his  hand. 

n.  The  Gospel  of  Christ  was  introduced  into 
the  world  at  a  trying  time.  In  some  respects  the 
conditions  for  it  were  propitious.  Judaism  had 
ripened  and  gone  to  seed  in  its  husk,  heathen 
religions  were  outworn,  and  the  world  lay  at  peace 
under  the  mighty  shadow  of  Rome;  and  these 
conditions  gave  the  Gospel  an  opportunity.  But 
in  other  respects  the  soil  for  its  reception  was 
stony  and  thorny.  Outworn  religious  faith  had 
degenerated  into  general  skepticism,  scoffing  irre- 

10 


146         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

ligion  and  hopeless  and  bitter  pessimism ;  the  fibres 
of  morality  and  character  had  broken  down  into 
pleasure  seeking,  sensuality,  cruelty  and  brutality; 
and  the  civil  power  was  becoming  a  despotism 
unchecked  by  law  or  reason.  The  result  was  a  con- 
dition of  society  surpassing  in  degradation  and 
shamelessness  anything  known  elsewhere  in  history. 
There  was  a  polished  surface  of  wealth  and  culture, 
but  beneath  it  was  a  seething  hell.  Upon  this  soil  so 
rank  with  weeds  and  thistles  the  Gospel  was  sown, 
into  this  boiling  caldron  it  was  cast.  What  chance 
was  there  that  it  could  survive,  take  root  and 
grow?  Yet  with  almost  incredible  speed  it  ran 
around  the  Mediterranean  shore  and  planted  itself 
in  every  strategic  city  and  center.  Quietly  and 
unobtrusively  it  spread  among  the  common  people 
and  the  very  slaves,  and  then  presently  it  began  to 
work  its  way  up  among  the  cultured  classes  and 
into  the  palace.  At  length  it  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  ruling  powers  and  excited  the  hostility 
of  pagan  priest  and  Rome  emperor.  Persecution 
broke  loose,  and  there  was  a  fearful  struggle 
between  the  old  faiths  and  the  new.  Time  and 
again  the  power  of  the  pagan  empire  endeavored 
to  wipe  out  Christianity  with  its  own  blood. 
Sword  and  fire  swept  through  the  ranks  of  believ- 
ers,   but    they    only    multiplied    the    more.     The 


CHRIST   IN    HISTORY  I47 

Colosseum,  the  very  seat  and  center  of  pagan  pride 
and  pomp  and  cruelty,  drenched  its  arena  with 
the  blood  of  Christians,  But  gentle  forces  are 
ever  the  mightiest,  "the  meek  shall  inherit  the 
earth,"  and  in  three  centuries  a  Christian  Emperor 
sat  upon  the  throne  of  Rome,  and  everywhere 
its  banners  flew  above  the  eagles  the  symbol  of  the 
Cross.  The  battle  of  early  Christianity  with  pagan 
Rome  is  one  of  the  most  magnificent  spectacles 
of  history  and  has  excited  the  wonder  of  infidel 
historians  hardly  less  than  that  of  believers. 
Gibbon  taxed  his  genius  to  explain  it,  and  Renan 
declared  that  "Jesus  Christ  created  a  paradise  out 
of  the  hell  of  Rome."  This  initial  battle  and  vic- 
tory was  prophetic  of  his  triumphant  march  down 
through  the  ages  and  out  over  the  continents  by 
which  He  has  been  crowned  victor  of  the  world. 
III.  Christ  has  been  a  creator  in  every  field 
of  civilization,  and  the  impress  of  his  hand  is  on 
all  our  ideas  and  institutions.  In  religion  he  is 
supreme  among  the  prophets  of  humanity.  His 
teaching  was  cast  as  a  seed  of  monotheism  among 
all  the  naturalisms,  polytheisms  and  pantheisms  of 
the  world.  The  face  of  God  struggling  through 
the  murky  vapors  of  human  superstition  was 
distorted  into  many  perverted  shadows,  which 
were  dark  with  cruelty:  Christ  swept  these  away 


148         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

as  with  the  beams  of  the  rising  sun  and  let  the 
face  of  the  Father  shine  through  in  its  true  form 
and  features.  Even  the  monotheism  of  Judaism 
was  narrow,  hard  and  cold  as  compared  with  the 
warmth  and  tenderness  of  the  Fatherhood  Christ 
disclosed  and  illustrated.  Corresponding  with  this 
revelation  of  the  Father  was  Christ's  teaching  as 
to  the  childhood  of  man  and  his  brotherhood.  This 
introduced  new  ethical  conceptions  as  to  human 
worth  and  social  relations  that  entered  as  pro- 
found and  powerful  creative  forces  into  the  world. 
As  contrasted  with  Jewish  and  pagan  cults  that 
were  so  largely  ritualistic,  Christ  created  an  ethical 
and  spiritual  religion  entering  directly  into  the 
heart  of  man  and  flowering  out  in  all  his  char- 
acter and  conduct.  Especially  did  he  put  his  own 
Person  in  the  center  of  his  religion  and  draw 
his  followers  into  vital  union  and  fellowship  with 
himself.  Thus  Christ  has  reconstructed  the  relig- 
ion of  the  world  and  produced  a  universal  ethical 
and  spiritual  faith  and  worship  that  stands  supreme 
among  all  the  religions  of  humanity.  The  ages 
have  not  displaced  him  from  his  transcendent 
position  among  the  founders  of  religions,  and  in 
the  morning  of  the  twentieth  century  he  stands 
unapproachable  and  practically  unchallenged. 
IV.     Christ  has  been  a  creator  in  the  political 


CHRIST   IN    HISTORY  149 

world.  While  in  his  teaching  he  did  not  deal 
directly  with  political  affairs  and  refused  to  com- 
plicate himself  with  Caesar,  yet  he  did  lay  down 
principles  that  were  deeper  than  all  politics  and 
necessarily  in  time  reshaped  them  into  accordance 
with  his  spirit.  Government,  while  a  divine  ordi- 
nance, is  also  a  human  device  subject  to  human 
adaptation.  The  various  types  of  government, 
despotism,  oligarchy,  monarchy  and  democracy, 
have  all  been  useful  and  justified  in  their  proper 
time.  Some  of  these  are  necessary  in  earlier  and 
lower  stages  of  human  development,  and  others  are 
blossoms  that  grow  higher  up  on  the  tree  of 
history.  Christ's  fundamental  doctrines  of  the 
worth  of  man  and  of  human  brotherhood  neces- 
sarily worked  against  the  lower  and  towards  the 
higher  forms  of  government.  He  taught  the 
essential  equality  of  men  in  their  primary  rights 
and  duties,  and  thus  let  loose  a  powerful  stream 
of  democracy  that  undermined  despotism  and 
monarchy,  toppled  over  the  thrones  of  tyrants  and 
kings,  and  laid  the  foundations  of  our  modem 
republics.  His  Spirit  of  righteousness  and  peace 
has  been  a  dominant  factor  in  shaping  the  fabrics 
of  our  modern  governments.  It  is  true  that  these 
governments  still  generally  bristle  with  bayonets 
and  are  loaded  down  with  heavy  armor,  but  war 


150         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

is  a  waning  factor  in  our  world,  and  all  the  forces 
of  our  Christian  civilization  are  silently  working 
against  it.  The  most  powerful  figure  and  force  in 
all  the  capitals  of  Christendom,  if  not  in  all  the 
capitals  of  the  world,  is  Jesus  Christ. 

V.  Christ  has  been  a  creator  in  the  moral  and 
social  world.  His  Spirit  of  humanity  grappled 
with  the  cruelties  of  the  ancient  world  and  deliv- 
ered it  from  its  awful  bondage.  It  was  his  hand 
that  stopped  the  flow  of  blood  on  the  arena  of  the 
Colosseum,  emptied  its  vast  amphitheater  of  its 
maddened  multitudes,  and  carved  on  its  ruined  wall 
the  Cross.  He  turned  that  "hell  of  Rome,"  on 
which  "disgust  and  loathing  fell,"  into  a  world  of 
order  and  decency.  His  hand  reached  through  the 
centuries  and  rescued  woman  and  children  from 
bondage  and  struck  the  shackles  off  the  slave. 
In  the  Roman  world  the  father  had  absolute  right 
over  his  children  and  slaves,  even  to  kill  them  at 
his  pleasure.  Woman  was  a  chattel  of  her  hus- 
band, as  she  is  to  this  day  in  India  and  Africa. 
The  spirit  of  Christianity  was  the  atmosphere  in 
which  these  cruelties  died  as  malignant  germs 
die  in  the  sunlight.  White  slavery  was  rendered 
impossible  by  Christian  ideals  of  manhood,  and 
the  same  spirit  in  time  worked  its  way  out  to  its 
logical  end  by  giving  the  black  man  equal  freedom 


CHRIST  IN   HISTORY  ISI 

with  the  white.  As  black  men  in  this  country 
bow  in  gratitude  before  Abraham  Lincoln,  so 
should  all  freed  slaves  in  the  world  gather  around 
the  feet  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  he  is  the  real  author  of 
their  liberty.  The  Spirit  of  Christ  is  also  per- 
vading our  whole  civilization  and  searching  out  its 
sins.  The  social  evil,  once  everywhere  open  and 
shameless,  is  now  under  the  ban  and  is  being 
treated  as  one  of  the  great  sores  of  the  world. 
Intemperance  is  being  restricted  and  driven  into 
ever  narrower  quarters.  Political  life  is  being 
purified,  and  business  itself  is  being  transmuted 
into  brotherhood.  The  same  standards  of  char- 
acter and  conduct  are  being  required  for  man 
and  woman,  white  and  black,  politics  and  business, 
private  and  public  life.  The  religion  of  Christ 
insists  on  entering  into  and  controlling  all  life, 
and  there  is  no  corner  or  secret  chamber  from 
which  it  can  be  shut  out.  His  presence  may  be 
invisible,  but  he  is  really  at  the  polls  and  in  the 
market,  in  the  home  and  at  the  fashionable  social 
function,  and  more  and  more  is  he  dominating 
all  our  life.  The  fact  that  the  world  is  still  a 
scene  of  sin  and  wickedness  and  that  even  the 
Church  and  all  Christians  are  painfully  imperfect, 
no  more  discredits  Christ  than  the  sunlight  is 
discredited  by  the  mire  on  which  it  falls,  or  the 


152         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTL\NITY 

white  lily  blossom  by  the  swamp  out  of  which  it 
grew. 

VL  Christ  is  a  creator  in  the  world  of  science, 
invention,  literature  and  art.  Though  he  wrote 
no  book  himself  and  wrote  nothing  but  a  few 
words  in  the  sand  that  were  soon  obliterated,  yet 
he  was  the  most  suggestive  Teacher  that  ever 
lived,  and  out  of  him  have  grown  vast  forests  of 
literature.  He  did  not  suppress  thought,  but 
stimulated  it  in  his  disciples  and  sowed  the  world 
with  the  germs  of  all  truth.  His  Gospel  as  it  went 
through  the  world  immediately  allied  itself  with 
and  absorbed  the  elements  of  truth  in  Greek  philos- 
ophy and  Roman  administration,  and  on  down 
through  the  centuries  it  has  breathed  upon  human 
genius  and  made  it  bloom  into  its  most  glorious 
achievements.  Open  the  map  of  the  world  and 
wherever  the  light  of  his  Gospel  shines  there  sci- 
ence and  art  flourish.  He  stands  in  the  center 
of  the  world,  and  all  creative  men  bring  their 
products  to  his  feet.  About  the  first  use  to  which 
any  notable  invention  is  put  is  to  extend  his  king- 
dom. The  very  first  book  printed  on  a  printing 
press  was  the  Bible,  and  this  wonderful  invention 
has  been  busier  printing  this  book  than  any  other 
to  this  day.  The  newspaper  is  a  mighty  agency 
for    spreading   his    principles.     The    railway    and 


CHRIST  IN   HISTORY  153 

Steamship  carry  his  Gospel,  the  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone flash  it,  the  airship  when  it  comes  will  give 
wings  to  it,  and  wireless  waves  set  the  ether 
aquiver  over  whole  continents  and  oceans  with  the 
messages  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  sewing  machine 
sews  for  him,  the  typewriter  writes  for  him,  the 
dynamo  whirls  for  him,  and  even  battleships  and 
bayonets  may  fight  for  him.  For  him  the  poet 
conceives  his  sublimest  imagery,  the  musician  con- 
.  structs  his  grandest  symphonies,  the  artist  paints 
his  masterpieces,  and  the  sculptor  is  ever  searching 
for  marble  white  enough  for  his  brow.  At  his 
feet  Dante  lays  his  Divine  Comedy,  Raphael  his 
Transfiguration,  Michelangelo  his  Moses,  Milton 
his  Paradise  Lost,  Tennyson  his  In  Memoriam, 
and  Lincoln  his  Emancipation  Proclamation.  The 
men  of  highest  genius  do  their  best  under  the 
inspiration  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  an  ever  increas- 
ing measure  he  is  drawing  all  men  into  his  service, 
and  this  process  will  go  on  until  the  world  lies  at 
his  feet  and  he  is  immeasurably  above  all.  Agnos- 
ticism has  no  worthy  pictures  to  paint,  atheism  is 
not  singable,  but  at  the  touch  of  Jesus  Christ  the 
world  grows  into  a  system  of  truth,  blossoms  into 
beauty  and  breaks  into  song. 

VII.     The  supreme  creative  work  of  Christ  is 
in   the  field  of  personal   redemption.    He   "came 


154         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,"  and 
these  nineteen  hundred  years  have  been  a  fulfil- 
ment of  that  purpose  and  promise.  He  fashioned 
his  personal  disciples  in  some  degree  into  his  own 
likeness  and  picked  some  jewels  up  out  of  the  very 
gutters  and  slums  of  Judea.  Penitent  publicans 
were  received  into  his  fellowship,  and  outcasts  crept 
to  his  feet  and  found  forgiveness  and  hope.  Down 
through  the  centuries  he  has  gathered  out  of  every 
generation  an  increasing  number  who  have  believed 
on  him  and  been  forgiven,  cleansed  and  trans- 
formed. Some  of  the  wickedest  men  have  been 
transfigured  into  goodness,  and  many  souls  have 
become  saints  who  shine  as  white  stars  in  the 
world.  The  Church  is  the  Body  of  Christ  in  which 
his  Spirit  dwells,  and  while  it  is  burdened  with 
many  human  faults  and  even  enormities,  yet  it 
has  ever  contained  a  multitude  of  beautiful  spirits, 
its  works  of  righteousness  and  charity  attest  his 
presence,  and  it  is  the  purest  and  noblest  organ- 
ization known  in  history.  Millions  of  men  and 
women  through  all  these  ages  have  loved  and  do 
now  love  Jesus  Christ  with  a  devotion  that  has 
stood  every  test  of  service  and  sacrifice,  trial  and 
tears.  He  is  their  Lord  and  Saviour  whose  words 
are  their  comfort  and  peace,  and  whose  presence 
is  their  strength  and  joy.     An  innumerable  multi- 


CHRIST   IN    HISTORY  1 55 

tude  is  thus  ever  gathering  around  his  feet  and 
receiving  from  him  inspiration  and  power  to  go 
out  and  conquer  the  world  for  him.  Prayer  and 
praise  are  ever  ascending  unto  him,  and  he  is  ever 
fulfilling  his  promise,  "Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway, 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.". 

Christendom  is  Christ  writ  large.  It  dates  its 
calendar  from  his  birth  and  organizes  itself  around 
him  as  its  center.  The  Christian  centuries  are 
his  lengthened  shadow.  This  fact  is  a  tremendous 
confirmation  and  proof  of  his  divine  personality 
and  power.  He  said  that  he  would  be  with  his 
disciples  unto  the  end  of  the  world,  and  the  world 
so  far  matches  his  promise.  It  is  true  that  there 
are  yet  many  stains  and  shadows  on  the  world; 
it  is  still  in  the  twilight  or  in  the  dark.  But  the 
Sun  has  not  yet  fully  risen;  it  has  only  swung 
above  the  eastern  horizon,  and  long  time  must 
elapse  before  it  can  ascend  to  the  zenith  and  flood 
the  world  with  midday  splendor.  But  the  dawn 
has  reddened  the  East  and  given  promise  of  the 
day.  Standing  in  the  frame  of  these  nineteen 
centuries  Jesus  Christ  is  seen  to  be  larger  than 
any  figure  of  our  human  kind  and  to  be  crowned 
with  power  and  glory  as  the  Son  of  God. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

INADEQUATE  EXPLANATIONS   OF  CHRIST 

It  is  always  important  that  we  consider  the 
opposition.  Truth  is  not  the  monopoly  of  any 
school  or  party,  and  those  that  oppose  us  may  catch 
a  glimpse  of  it  from  a  different  angle  or  emphasize 
an  aspect  we  are  neglecting.  Jesus  Christ  is  a 
fact  that  cannot  be  overlooked  in  any  view  of 
history.  He  fills  the  horizon  of  the  centuries,  and 
no  eye  can  be  blind  to  his  presence  and  signifi- 
cance. What  view  have  unbelievers  taken  of  him, 
how  have  they  fitted  him  into  the  frame  of  history 
and  accounted  for  his  enorm^ous  power?  In  gen- 
eral it  can  be  said  they  have  been  profoundly 
impressed  with  the  problem  of  his  personality  and 
influence,  and  their  inadequate  explanations  are  in 
themselves  a  wonderful  tribute  to  him. 

I.  These  perverted  or  partial  explanations  of 
Christ  began  during  his  own  life  and  ministry. 
Many  were  the  judgments  passed  upon  him  by 
unbelieving  or  hostile  contemporaries,  more  than 
sixty  of  these  being  recorded  in  the  Gospels.  They 
156 


INADEQUATE  EXPLANATIONS  OF  CHRIST       I$7 

form  an  illuminating  study  and  throw  a  flood  of 
light  upon  Jesus  from  many  points  of  view.  The 
wonder  of  his  person  and  power  began  at  once. 
"Is  not  this  the  carpenter?"  "How  knoweth  this 
man  letters,  having  never  learned?"  "Whence 
hath  this  man  these  things?"  "Who  can  forgive 
sins,  but  God  alone  ?"  "What  do  we  ?  for  this  man 
doeth  many  signs."  "Behold  how  ye  prevail  noth- 
ing: lo,  the  world  is  gone  after  him."  The  most 
diverse  explanations  were  given  of  him.  "Out 
of  Galilee  ariseth  no  prophet."  "We  know  this 
man  whence  he  is."  "Some  said.  He  is  a 
good  man:  others  said,  Nay;  but  he  deceiveth 
the  people."  "He  hath  Beelzebub,  and  by  the 
prince  of  the  devils  he  casteth  out  devils."  "We 
have  found  this  man  perverting  our  nation." 
"Away  with  him,  crucify  him!"  Some  of  the 
charges  made  against  him  were  unconscious  trib- 
utes to  him.  "This  man  receiveth  sinners  and 
eateth  with  them."  "Because  that  thou,  being 
man,  makest  thyself  God."  "He  saved  others; 
himself  he  cannot  save."  Others  of  these  testi- 
monies rise  to  lofty  heights  of  appreciation,  "I 
find  no  fault  in  this  man."  "Never  man  spake  like 
this  man."  "Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God." 
This  babel  of  conflicting  voices  is  impressive  testi- 
mony to  the  fact  that  Jesus  was  a  wonder  and 


158         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

mystery  these  hostile  Jews  could  not  comprehend; 
and  amidst  it  all  Christ  stands  a  calm  and 
sublime  Figure  immeasurably  transcending  their 
little  theories,  only  heightened  by  the  contrast  of 
their  petty  views  and  spirit. 

II.  Passing  by  ancient  attacks,  such  as  that  of 
Celsus,  a  Greek  philosopher  of  the  second  century, 
the  earliest  literary  opponent  of  Christianity,  let 
us  come  down  to  modern  times  and  look  at  a  few 
of  the  most  noted  theories.  One  of  the  first  of 
these  is  Gibbon's  celebrated  Fifteenth  Chapter  in 
his  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  He 
was  deeply  impressed  with  the  rapid  spread  of  the 
Christian  religion  in  the  ancient  world  and  with 
its  triumph  after  the  bloody  trial  to  which  it  had 
been  subjected.  In  explanation  of  this  spread  he 
adduced  five  causes  and  elaborates  them  with  all 
the  resources  of  his  profound  learning  and  his 
polished  literary  art.  His  five  causes  are:  The 
zeal  of  the  Jews,  the  Christian  doctrine  of  immor- 
tality, the  miraculous  powers  of  the  primitive 
Church,  the  virtues  of  the  first  Christians,  and 
the  activity  of  the  Christians  in  the  government  of 
the  Church.  These  causes,  like  some  of  the 
unconscious  tributes  of  the  hostile  Jews,  are  highly 
complimentary  to  Christianity  and  put  bright 
crowns  on  the  brow  of  Christ.    It  was  early  pointed 


INADEQUATE   EXPLANATIONS   OF   CHRIST        1 59 

out  that  these  "causes"  are  themselves  the  very 
things  to  be  explained,  and  thus  the  skeptical  his- 
torian begs  the  question.  How  comes  it  that  the 
Christians  had  such  zeal  and  had  such  a  hold  of 
immortality  and  seemed  to  have  miraculous  powers 
and  were  so  virtuous  and  had  such  success  in  the 
organization  and  extension  of  the  Church?  These 
things  are  fruits  that  demand  some  worthy  root, 
and  this  can  be  found  only  in  Jesus  Christ. 

III.  Seventy-five  years  ago  there  appeared 
from  the  pen  of  David  Friedrich  Strauss  (1808- 
1874)  a  Life  of  Christ,  which  made  a  great 
noise  in  the  world,  and  some  thought  the  heavens 
of  Christian  faith  were  passing  away.  Strauss 
looked  into  the  origin  of  Christianity  and  found  a 
myth.  A  myth  is  a  story  that  grows  up  in  explan- 
ation of  an  event,  until  its  real  origin  is  forgotten, 
and  then  it  is  elaborated  into  an  unconscious  crea- 
tion. Strauss  explained  the  origin  of  Christianity 
on  this  principle.  Christ  lived  and  taught  as  a 
Teacher,  gathered  some  disciples,  was  opposed  by 
the  Pharisees,  and  fell  a  victim  to  their  hate.  His 
death  disappointed  his  disciples,  but  they  were  men 
of  Oriental  imagination,  and  their  desires  and 
dreams  were  the  seeds  of  stories  that  grew  with 
the  years  into  all  the  teachings,  miracles,  events 
and  doctrines  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles.    Accord- 


l6o         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

ing  to  this  theory  Christianity  created  Christ,  the 
shadows  made  the  Alps.  The  theory  died  long 
before  its  author,  because  a  myth  takes  generations 
for  its  growth,  and  Christianity  sprang  up  quickly. 
IV.  After  Strauss'  mythical  theory  had  had  its 
little  day  it  was  succeeded  by  another,  and  again 
many  thought  Christianity  had  met  its  doom.  Fer- 
dinand Christian  Baur  (1792-1860)  was  another 
great  German  scholar,  who  was  the  teacher  of 
Strauss,  but  followed  him  with  a  Life  of  Christ. 
What  did  he  find  when  he  looked  into  the  origin  of 
Christianity?  He  found  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
divided  into  two  camps,  the  Petrine  and  the  Paul- 
ine. The  former  maintained  that  Christianity  was 
only  an  improved  Judaism  for  the  Jews  alone,  and 
the  latter  that  it  was  a  universal  religion,  for  the 
Gentile  as  well  as  for  the  Jew.  These  two  "ten- 
dencies" generated  all  the  literature  of  the  New 
Testament  and  wrote  every  Gospel  and  Epistle  to 
support  the  one  or  the  other  of  them.  Baur  traced 
this  conflict  through  the  entire  New  Testament 
and  found  some  mark  or  hint  of  it  in  almost  every 
verse.  So  these  conflicting  parties  created  Christ. 
This  was  like  explaining  Napoleon  by  the  quarrels 
of  his  generals,  or  Abraham  Lincoln  by  the  jeal- 
ousies of  the  members  of  his  cabinet.  This  theory 
had  its  little  day  and  melted  away  like  morning 


INADEQUATE   EXPLANATIONS   OF   CHRIST        l6l 

mist.  The  "tendency  theory"  destroyed  the  "myth- 
ical theory,"  because  it  maintained  the  New 
Testament  was  written  under  the  play  of  conscious 
purpose,  and  the  simple  facts  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment destroyed  them  both.  Yet  these  German 
scholars  rendered  a  great  service  to  Biblical  schol- 
arship, for  they  initiated  the  historical  study  of  the 
life  of  Christ  that  has  resulted  in  such  a  forest 
of  literature  and  has  greatly  strengthened  and 
enriched  Christian  faith. 

V.  The  next  skeptical  Life  of  Christ  that 
attracted  great  attention  was  that  of  Ernest  Renan 
(1823-1892),  which  appeared  in  1863.  Renan 
wrote  his  work  after  the  fashion  of  a  French  novel- 
ist, investing  it  with  all  the  arts  and  charms  of 
poetry  and  romance.  He  painted  the  life  of  Jesus 
as  the  "sweet  Galilean  vision"  of  one  in  whom 
"tenderness  of  heart  was  transformed  into  an  infi- 
nite sweetness,  a  vague  poetry,  a  universal  charm." 
Jesus  began  teaching,  simply  and  honestly  enough, 
as  a  preacher  of  the  purest  code  of  morals  and  a 
healer  of  disease,  but  growing  popularity  swept 
him  on  its  current  into  mild  deception  as  a  means 
of  carrying  it  to  a  successful  end ;  yet  this  delight- 
ful pastoral  and  lovely  idyl  became  a  terrible 
tragedy  which  "ends  for  the  historian  with  his 
expiring  cry  on  the  cross."  Renan  indulges  in 
II 


l62         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

glowing-  descriptions  and  eulogies  and  at  times 
his  poetry  becomes  rhapsody;  yet  he  dissolves  the 
Gospel  history  into  a  legend  in  which  fact  and 
fiction  are  so  interblended  that  the  line  between 
the  two  cannot  be  distinctly  drawn.  His  "legen- 
dary hypothesis"  differs  from  Strauss'  "mythical 
theory"  only  in  degree  and  not  in  kind;  it  allows 
rather  more  historical  substance,  but  that  substance 
is  still  a  misty  though  it  may  be  a  gorgeous  cloud. 
VI.  The  fallacy  of  all  these  theories  is  that 
they  put  the  consequences  in  place  of  the  cause. 
Christ  is  created  by  Christianity,  or  by  its  biog- 
raphers, or  by  legend;  the  stream  creates  the 
fountain,  the  building  holds  up  the  foundation. 
This  is  the  reversal  of  the  order  of  cause  and 
effect  and  of  all  historical  explanation.  His 
biographies  did  not  create  Washington,  but  Wash- 
ington created  his  biographies ;  the  shadows  do  not 
make  the  Alps,  but  the  Alps  cast  the  shadows. 
The  stupendous  fabric  of  Christianity  must  have 
some  worthy  origin  and  sufficient  cause;  it  cannot 
be  a  stream  with  no  adequate  fountain,  or  a  vast 
shadow  with  no  mountain  wall  that  would  cast  it. 
,The  stream  of  Christianity  has  broadened  with  the 
ages,  but  it  is  against  all  analogy  and  reason  to 
suppose  that  it  originated  in  a  swamp  or  a  fog. 
Myth  and  legend  and  divisions  among  its  disci- 


INADEQUATE  EXPLANATIONS   OF   CHRIST        163 

pies  are  wholly  inadequate  to  create  the  sharp 
historical  personality  and  concrete  literature  we 
find  at  the  origin  of  Christianity.  Back  of  all  this 
history  must  be  a  cause  large  enough  and  divine 
enough  to  match  it,  and  this  we  find  only  in  the 
historical  person  and  life  of  Jesus.  Christianity  did 
not  create  Christ,  but  Christ  created  Christianity. 
VII.  The  modern  Unitarian  view  of  Christ  is 
that  he  is  the  supreme  religious  leader  of  men, 
the  finest  outflowering  and  topmost  blossom  of  the 
race.  In  him  God  has  revealed  himself  most  fully 
and  splendidly,  and  he  is  therefore  the  Light  of  the 
world.  But  Unitarianism  rejects  any  trinitarian 
distinction  in  the  Godhead,  quietly  erases  the  mir- 
aculous element  from  the  life  of  Christ,  and 
discrowns  him  of  his  divinity.  It  views  him  as 
only  one  more  of  his  human  kind,  surpassingly 
good  and  beautiful,  it  is  true,  but  still  only  a  man. 
The  adherents  of  this  form  of  faith  have  embraced 
many  eminent  literary  men  and  people  of  culture, 
and  many  of  their  leaders  have  been  foremost  in 
their  tributes  to  Christ.  Channing,  the  father  of 
American  Unitarianism,  was  a  powerful  defender 
of  Christian  faith,  and  one  may  read  the  books 
of  Prof.  F.  G.  Peabody  and  never  suspect  that 
he  is  a  Unitarian.  His  two  books  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  Social   Question,   and  Jesus   Christ   and 


164         THE  BASAL   BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

the  Christian  Character,  are  notable  contributions 
to  recent  Christian  literature,  and  his  chapter  on 
"The  Character  of  Jesus  Christ"  is  as  penetrating, 
original,  luminous  and  eloquent  as  Bushnell's 
famous  chapter  with  the  same  title.  Unitarians 
also  exhibit  the  Christian  virtues  in  a  praiseworthy 
degree,  and  many  of  their  leaders  have  been  men 
of  the  most  beautiful  character.  Yet,  however 
sincerely  and  deeply  they  may  appreciate  Christ 
and  however  loyally  they  may  follow  him,  they 
take  only  a  partial  view  of  his  person  and  teaching 
and  necessarily  gloss  over  the  miraculous  and 
divine  elements  in  his  life.  They  are  chary  about 
discussing  these  points  and  generally  avoid  by 
refusing  to  consider  the  old  dilemma  that  Christ 
is  either  God  or  else  not  good.  They  are  not  to 
be  classed  spiritually  with  Strauss  and  Renan,  and 
yet  intellectually  they  belong  with  them.  While 
Unitarianism  has  had  a  modifying  effect  upon 
trinitarian  theology,  yet  it  has  made  no  consider- 
able impression  and  progress.  It  is  good  and 
beautiful  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  will  ever  remain 
an  inadequate  explanation  of  Christ. 

VIII.  The  utterances  concerning  Christ  of 
modern  thinkers  and  scholars  that  are  either  unbe- 
lievers or  are  only  broadly  Christian  believers,  are 
a  remarkable  testimony  to  his  person  and  work 


INADEQUATE   EXPLANATIONS   OF   CHRIST        165 

and  show  how  far  even  the  greatest  skeptics  are 
compelled  to  go  in  their  appreciation  if  not  in  their 
adoration  of  Jesus.  Immanuel  Kant,  when  some 
one  instituted  a  comparison  between  his  moral 
teachings  and  those  of  Jesus,  said:  "One  of  those 
names,  before  which  the  heavens  bow,  is  sacred, 
while  the  other  is  only  that  of  a  poor  scholar 
endeavoring  to  explain  to  the  best  of  his  abilities 
the  teachings  of  the  Master."  Johann  Fichte 
wrote:  "Till  the  end  of  time,  all  the  sensible  will 
bow  low  before  this  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  all 
will  humbly  acknowledge  the  exceeding  glory  of 
this  great  phenomenon.  His  followers  are  nations 
and  generations."  Jean  Paul  Richter  calls  Jesus 
"the  purest  of  the  mighty,  the  mightiest  of  the 
pure,  who  with  his  pierced  hands  raised  empires 
from  their  foundations,  turned  the  stream  of 
history  from  its  old  channels,  and  still  continues 
to  rule  and  guide  the  ages."  David  Friedrich 
Strauss  confessed  that  Jesus  "among  the  improvers 
of  ideal  humanity  stands  in  the  very  first  class, 
and  remains  the  highest  model  of  religion  within 
the  reach  of  our  thought;  and  no  perfect  piety  is 
possible  without  his  presence  in  the  heart."  Rous- 
seau, instituting  a  comparison  between  Socrates  and 
Jesus,  concludes;  "If  Socrates  lived  and  died  like 
a  philosopher,  Jesus  lived  and  died  like  a  God." 


l66         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

Renan  ends  his  Life  of  Jesus  with  these  words: 
"Whatever  may  be  the  surprises  of  the  future, 
Jesus  will  never  be  surpassed.  His  worship  will 
grow  young  without  ceasing;  his  legend  will  call 
forth  tears  without  end;  his  sufferings  will  melt 
the  noblest  hearts;  all  ages  will  proclaim  that, 
among  the  sons  of  men,  there  is  none  born  greater 
than  Jesus."  These  testimonies  could  be  multi- 
plied indefinitely. 

The  total  impression  these  inadequate  explana- 
tions make  upon  us  is  that  they  are  themselves  a 
wonderful  tribute  to  Jesus  and  almost  amount  to 
the  exclamation  of  the  Roman  soldier,  "Truly  this 
was  the  Son  of  God."  Yet  however  far  they  go 
and  wonderful  they  are,  they  still  fall  short  of  the 
reality  and  are  partial  and  inadequate.  The  Fig- 
ure is  larger  than  any  of  these  frames  men  have 
tried  to  construct  around  it:  the  Person  back  of 
them  is  too  transcendent  and  divine  to  be  explained 
by  them.  The  fountain  they  give  us  is  still  too 
small  for  the  stream,  the  mountain  they  find  is  too 
low  for  the  vast  shadows  it  has  cast.  We  are 
driven  back  of  these  inadequate  explanations  to 
one  that  is  deeper  and  diviner,  and  this  we  find 
only  in  Jesus  Christ  as  the  incarnate  Son  of  God. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 


THE   HOLY   SPIRIT 


The  complex  and  rich  inner  life  of  the  Godhead 
is  manifested  in  the  three  personal  distinctions  of 
Father,  Son  and  Holy  Spirit.  The  order  of  mani- 
festation is  from  the  Father  through  the  Son  by 
the  Spirit.  The  Father  is  the  creator  from  whom 
all  things  proceed,  the  Son  is  the  medium  or  agent 
through  whom  the  Father  operates,  and  the  Spirit 
executes  the  purpose  and  applies  the  power  of  the 
Father  and  the  Son.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  thus  the 
executive  of  the  Godhead  and  is  immanent  in  all 
its  activities  in  the  world.  Yet  we  are  not  to  think 
of  the  Spirit  as  being  separated  from  the  Father 
and  the  Son :  all  three  are  present  in  all  their 
works  in  their  indissoluble  unity;  but  the  Spirit 
is  the  immediate  agent  in  divine  operations. 

I.  The  Spirit  was  the  agent  in  the  creation  of 
the  world  and  is  immanent  in  nature.  The  Spirit 
of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters  in 
creation  as  the  brooding  presence  and  power  that 
called  all  things  into  existence  and  wooed  them 

167 


1 68         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

into  form  and  use;  and  the  Spirit  is  still  present 
in  all  the  agents  and  activities  of  nature  as  their 
creating,  upholding  and  guiding  cause.  "Thou 
sendest  forth  thy  Spirit,  they  are  created;  and 
thou  renewest  the  face  of  the  ground."  The 
heavens  were  made  and  all  the  host  of  them  by 
the  breath  of  his  mouth.  Thus  the  whole  frame 
of  nature  is  the  immediate  creation  of  the  Spirit, 
and  all  its  life  is  the  breathing  of  his  breath. 
Nature  is  not  an  opaque  and  lifeless  lump  of  matter 
interposed  between  God  and  man,  but  is  his  living 
Spirit  manifesting  his  life,  thought,  feeling  and 
will,  and  in  him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being. 

II.  The  Spirit  is  the  creative  agent  and  guid- 
ing presence  in  our  human  world.  The  Lord 
God  created  man  by  breathing  into  his  nostrils 
the  breath  of  life,  and  all  human  souls  are  the 
immediate  offspring  of  the  Spirit.  The  Spirit  is 
universally  present  in  the  life  of  humanity  as  the 
source  of  all  truth,  goodness,  beauty  and  joy. 
God  has  made  the  human  mind  to  match  his  own 
mind  of  truth  and  is  leading  it  slowly  through 
long  ages  and  strenuous  processes  of  education 
into  truth.  All  the  truth  that  has  ever  been  gained 
in  the  world,  whether  in  Christian  or  in  heathen 
minds,  has  been  the  product  of  the  joint  action 


THE   HOLY  SPIRIT  169 

of  the  human  mind  and  the  divine  Spirit.  The 
fact  that  this  truth  has  ever  been  mixed  with  error 
and  sometimes  the  light  has  been  almost  extin- 
guished in  darkness,  does  not  exclude  the  presence 
and  activity  of  the  Spirit  from  the  human  process 
of  finding  and  developing  truth.  The  skill  of  men 
in  catching  and  mastering  the  forces  of  nature 
and  improving  the  arts  is  also  stimulated  and 
guided  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Moses  said  unto  the 
children  of  Israel,  "See,  the  Lord  hath  called  by 
name  Bezalel  the  son  of  Uri,  the  son  of  Hur,  of 
the  tribe  of  Judah;  and  he  hath  filled  him  with 
the  Spirit  of  God,  in  wisdom,  in  understanding, 
and  in  knowledge,  and  in  all  manner  of  workman- 
ship; and  to  devise  cunning  works,  to  work  in 
gold,  and  in  silver,  and  in  brass,  and  in  cutting 
stones  for  setting,  and  in  carving  of  wood,  to  work 
in  all  manner  of  cunning  workmanship"  (Exodus 
31:  2-3).  Thus  the  workman's  skill,  the  artist's 
picture,  the  musician's  symphony  and  the  poet's 
vision  are  the  product  of  the  presence  of  the  Spirit 
working  in  the  minds  of  men.  So  also  all  the 
goodness  and  happiness  in  the  world  are  streams 
flowing  from  the  central  Fountain  in  the  Spirit 
of  God.  This  co-working  of  the  divine  Spirit  with 
the  human  mind  does  not  interfere  with  the  self- 
activity  of  the  human  mind  and  deprive  it  of  its 


170         THE  BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

agency  and  responsibility,  but  the  divine  Spirit  is 
a  stimulating  and  guiding  influence. 

III.  The  Spirit  of  God  is  especially  manifest  in 
the  moral  and  spiritual  life  of  the  world,  Christ 
promised  that  the  Spirit  would  "convict  the  world 
in  respect  of  sin,  and  of  righteousness,  and  of 
judgment."  This  brings  the  Spirit  into  direct 
contact  with  the  universal  human  conscience  to  stir 
it  into  moral  and  spiritual  activity.  God  made 
the  soul  with  a  moral  nature  and  keeps  it  bathed 
in  his  presence  so  that  it  is  always  under  a  divine 
stimulus.  Out  of  this  grow  all  the  goodness  and 
character,  all  the  repentance  and  righteousness  in 
the  world.  Wherever  a  human  soul  feels  its  guilt 
and  turns  from  an  evil  way,  there  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  convicting  of  sin  and  righteousness  and  judg- 
ment. And  the  same  Spirit  prompts  men  to  seek 
a  God  and  Father  and  to  pour  out  their  souls  in 
prayer  and  worship.  It  is  under  this  impact  and 
pressure  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  the  world  is  mov- 
ing forward  out  of  old  evils  into  clearer  light 
and  better  conduct.  The  work  of  the  Spirit  is 
thus  much  wider  than  the  Christian  Church  and 
is  universal  in  the  world.  This  presence  of  the 
Spirit  is  not  disproved  by  the  terrible  darkness 
of  the  heathen  world:  the  human  atmosphere  may 
be  murky,  but  the  divine  Light  is  still  shining  there. 


THE   HOLY   SPIRIT  I7I 

IV.  The  Spirit  is  manifested  more  clearly  in 
the  Church.  Christ  told  the  disciples  that  it  was 
expedient  that  he  should  leave  the  world,  but  that 
the  Spirit  would  come  and  would  guide  them  into 
all  truth.  "He  shall  glorify  me:  for  he  shall  take 
of  mine,  and  shall  declare  it  unto  you."  The  Spirit 
is  thus  in  the  world  to  carry  out  on  a  universal 
scale  the  work  of  Christ,  taking  of  the  things  of 
Christ  and  applying  them  to  the  hearts  of  men 
so  as  to  make  them  vivid,  effective  and  fruitful. 
The  special  work  of  the  Spirit  is  in  guiding  the 
Church  into  truth.  Truth  is  the  foundation  of  the 
Christian  faith  and  life,  and  it  is  of  the  first  impor- 
tance that  the  human  mind  and  heart  be  led  into  the 
truth  concerning  God  and  Christ,  the  soul  and  its 
sin,  salvation  and  service.  This  work  is  effected  by 
the  presence  of  the  Spirit  in  the  world  so  as  to 
enlighten  and  quicken  the  human  mind  and  heart. 
The  moral  convictions  and  spiritual  moods  of  the 
soul  depend  intimately  upon  the  atmosphere  in 
which  it  is  bathed,  the  light  that  is  shining  upon 
it,  the  subtle  spiritual  influences  that  are  stimu- 
lating it.  The  Spirit  has  access  to  these  sources 
of  control  and  can  bring  them  to  bear  on  the  soul 
with  penetrating  power.  It  often  happens  that  a 
soul  experiences  a  deep  change  in  its  whole  attitude 
towards  spiritual  things,  as  though  it  had  moved 


172         THE  BASAL   BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

into  a  new  spiritual  climate  or  had  risen  to  a 
higher  level.  Old  familiar  truths  suddenly  begin 
to  burn  and  glow  with  new  light  and  power.  The 
Spirit  has  taken  of  these  things  and  shown  them 
unto  that  soul.  Pentecost  was  a  tremendous  out- 
burst of  such  spirtual  power,  the  Reformation  and 
the  Wesleyan  revival  were  manifestations  of  the 
same  presence,  and  all  revivals  spring  from  this 
source.  The  Church  consists  of  a  body  or  organ- 
ism of  minds  and  hearts  that  have  in  a  measure 
been  brought  into  harmony  and  tune  with  the 
Spirit  so  that  it  is  receptive  to  his  presence  and 
influence;  and  the  progress  of  the  Church  through 
the  ages  in  Christian  truth  is  the  result  of  this 
indwelling  and  illumination.  Christ  declared  to 
his  disciples,  "I  have  yet  many  things  to  say  unto 
you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now."  This  promise 
is  still  being  fulfilled.  Truth  is  a  vast  sea,  and 
only  small  streams  of  it  have  as  yet  poured  into  the 
Church;  it  is  a  sun  of  light,  and  only  its  dawn 
has  risen  on  the  human  mind.  The  Spirit  of  all 
truth  has  yet  many  things  to  say  unto  us,  and 
we  should  keep  our  minds  and  hearts  open  to 
every  word  and  accent  of  his  voice. 

V.  The  Spirit  works  in  the  heart  of  the  individ- 
ual so  as  to  lead  it  to  repentance  ^nd  faith.  It 
is  the  Spirit's  sovereign  work  to  effect  the  deep 


THE   HOLY  SPIRIT  I73 

change  in  the  heart  known  as  regeneration,  by 
which  the  germ  of  divine  hfe  is  imparted  to  the 
soul.  Into  the  nature  and  mystery  of  this  work 
we  cannot  penetrate;  but  we  know  its  accompany- 
ing conditions  and  fruits,  and  these  are  repentance, 
faith  and  obedience.  The  Spirit  is  in  and  under 
these  also;  but  not  so  as  to  produce  them  by  any 
necessary  process  that  is  against  our  will  or  that 
permits  us  to  remain  passive  and  quiescent;  the 
soul  must  be  an  active  and  earnest  co-worker  in 
these  processes.  We  have  the  power  of  concen- 
trating and  holding  our  attention  upon  a  truth  or 
mental  state,  and  when  thus  held  in  the  focus  of 
the  mind  it  attracts  to  itself  kindred  associations 
and  begins  to  glow  with  light  and  heat  and  at 
length  may  fill  and  possess  and  master  the  whole 
soul.  It  is  in  this  power  of  directing  and  intensi- 
fying our  attention  that  our  self-control  and  respon- 
sibility chiefly  reside;  and  it  is  in  and  through  such 
rational  processes  that  the  Spirit  uses  the  truth  to 
convince  of  sin  and  righteousness  and  judgment 
and  bring  us  into  a  state  of  penitence  and  faith. 

We  are  thus  immersed  in  the  presence  of  the 
Spirit  as  in  a  universal  sea  or  atmosphere  and 
are  dependent  on  him  at  every  point.  He  is 
immanent  in  the  physical  world,  comes  to  higher 
expression  in  life,  and  manifests  himself  in  a  still 


174         THE  BASAL   BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

higher  degree  in  the  soul  of  man  with  its  moral 
and  spiritual  powers.  He  is  the  divine  agent  in 
leading  us  into  truth  and  bringing  us  to  a  new 
birth  in  which  we  are  born,  not  of  blood  nor  of 
the  will  of  the  flesh,  but  of  God.  God  comes  down 
into  us  through  the  Spirit,  and  through  the  Spirit 
our  penitence  and  faith  and  praise  go  up  to  God. 
To  be  filled  with  the  Spirit  is  to  be  full  of  Hfe,  with 
all  its  good  and  beautiful  and  blessed  fruits,  and 
the  aim  and  effort  of  the  Christian  life  is  to  grow 
in  the  Spirit  so  as  to  be  filled  with  all  the  fulness 
of  God. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


SALVATION 


The  whole  process  of  redemption,  wrought  out 
by  the  Father's  love  through  Christ  and  applied  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  comes  to  its  fruition  in  the  salva- 
tion of  the  believer.  Salvation  consists  in  deliver- 
ance from  sin  and  restoration  to  righteousness  in 
fellowship  with  God,  and  we  are  now  to  see  how 
this  is  attained. 

I.  As  sin  is  separation  in  self-will  from  God, 
so  salvation  is  union  with  God.  This  is  effected 
through  union  with  Christ  by  the  indwelling  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  the  believing  soul.  That  the  believer 
is  in  Christ  and  Christ  in  the  believer  is.  a  central 
fact  in  New  Testament  teaching,  especially  in  the 
last  private  discourses  of  Christ  with  his  disciples 
and  the  epistles  of  Paul.  "As  thou.  Father,  art  in 
me,  and  I  in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  in  us ; ...  I 
in  them,  and  thou  in  me,  that  they  may  be  per- 
fected into  one."  "Wherefore  if  any  man  is  in 
Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature :  old  things  are  passed 
away;  behold,  they  are  become  new."  "I  have  been 
I7S 


176        THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

crucified  with  Christ:  yet  I  live;  and  yet  no  longer 
I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  The  phrase  "in  Christ" 
is  characteristic  of  Paul's  letters  and  is  the  keynote 
of  his  teaching,  it  is  evident  that  this  relation 
is  not  simply  one  of  moral  union  or  personal 
friendship,  such  as  we  experience  in  our  human 
friendships,  but  is  a  much  deeper  and  more  inti- 
mate one.  It  is  a  relation  of  mutual  immanence 
by  which  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  interblended  with 
the  soul  of  the  believer  and  the  believer  is 
ensphered  in  the  Spirit.  We  may  conceive  of  this 
relation  as  being  somewhat  like  that  of  our 
thoughts,  feelings  and  volitions  to  our  souls. 
These  mental  states  are  in  our  souls  and  our  souls 
are  in  them,  and  yet  the  self  and  its  states  remain 
distinct.  So  Christ  and  the  believer  remain  per- 
sonally distinct,  and  yet  Christ  is  in  the  soul  and 
the  soul  is  in  Christ. 

II.  This  vital  union  is  effected  on  the  divine 
side  through  the  sovereign  agency  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  but  on  the  human  side  it  is  effected  through 
the  free  action  of  the  soul  itself.  The  primary 
action  of  the  soul  at  this  point  is  that  of  faith* 
Faith  is  a  universal  fact  in  life.  It  begins  in 
infancy  with  dependence  on  parenthood  and  unfolds 
through  all  life  in  mutual  trust  and  friendship. 
Without   it   human   society   could   not  exist,   and 


SALVATION  Vjy 

individual  life  would  perish.  It  is  the  trust  of 
the  heart,  especially  personal  confidence.  The  same 
faith  that  thus  binds  men  together  in  society,  busi- 
ness and  friendship,  reaches  up  to  God  and  lays 
hold  of  him  in  trust  and  obedience.  God  has 
come  to  man  in  his  universal  Spirit,  and  especially 
has  he  drawn  near  and  shown  his  face  and  love 
in  Christ.  The  soul  believes  in  God's  presence 
and  promises  and  commits  itself  to  Christ.  Such 
a  commitment  is  faith;  and  it  is  a  tie  that  binds 
the  soul  to  Christ  in  union  and  fellowship  in  which 
the  believing  soul  and  the  Saviour  begin  to  live  a 
common  life  of  love  and  service. 

III.  Concurrent  with  faith  is  another  primary 
act  of  the  believing  soul,  and  that  is  repentance. 
This  is  a  changed  attitude  of  the  soul  towards 
sin.  It  is  commonly  regarded  as  a  painful  feeling 
of  sorrow  over  sin,  but  it  is  primarily  a  changed 
mind,  leading  to  feeling  and  obedience.  Under  the 
presence  and  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  the  soul 
comes  to  see  sin  in  its  true  light  as  rebellion  against 
the  righteousness  and  wisdom  and  goodness  of 
God  and  self-injury  that  works  deep  and  fatal 
damage  to  the  soul  and  wide  injury  to  others. 
So  intense  may  be  its  sense  of  guilt  in  the  sight 
of  God  that  it  may  exclaim,  "Against  thee,  thee 
only,  have  I  sinned  and  done  this  evil  in  thy  sight." 

13 


178         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

When  this  conviction  passes  on  into  a  practical 
turning  of  the  whole  soul  and  life  from  the  evil 
state  of  heart  and  course  of  conduct  towards  God 
and  his  righteousness,  the  soul  has  repented,  or 
changed  its  mind,  as  the  word  means.  Both  faith 
and  repentance  are  within  the  power  of  the  soul 
under  the  play  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  However 
dependent  we  are  on  the  grace  of  God  at  these 
points,  we  are  conscious  of  our  own  freedom  and 
responsibility  and  know  that,  if  we  will,  we  can 
believe  and  repent.  By  these  acts  the  soul  con- 
summates its  union  with  Christ. 

IV.  This  union  now  carries  with  it  the  essen- 
tials of  salvation  on  both  the  divine  and  the  human 
side.  On  the  divine  side  it  involves  the  atoning 
grace  and  pardon  of  God  in  Christ.  We  have  seen 
that  by  virtue  of  his  union  with  humanity 
as  its  Head  and  Representative  Christ  stands 
responsible  for  man  before  God  and  answers  for 
man's  sin.  It  was  in  this  relation  that  he  bore 
the  Cross  and  thus  made  an  atonement  that  satis- 
fies the  Fatherly  love  and  holy  righteousness  of 
God.  The  virtue  of  this  atonement  can  pass  over 
to  the  individual  soul  only  as  it  comes  into  a  new 
personal  union  with  Christ  through  its  own  faith 
and  repentance.  It  is  thus  God  himself  is  just, 
and  yet  "the  justifier  of  him  that  hath   faith  in 


SALVATION  179 

Jesus."  This  is  not  an  unnatural  and  untrue 
justification  by  which  God  declares  an  unjust  per- 
son to  be  just  on  the  ground  of  the  justice  of 
another  independent  person:  these  two  persons,  the 
unjust  sinner  and  the  just  Saviour,  are  in  a  deep 
sense  one.  The  Saviour  is  the  Head  of  the  race 
of  which  the  sinner  is  a  member,  and  as  a  believ- 
ing, penitent  member  of  the  new  body  of  Christ 
the  sinner  is  crucified  with  Christ  and  shares  in 
his  righteousness.  The  believing  sinner  thus 
stands  as  one  with  Christ  before  God;  and  on 
the  ground  of  this  relation  God  pardons  the 
sinner's  sin  and  restores  him  to  his  favor  and 
fellowship. 

V.  What,  then,  becomes  of  the  saved  sinner's 
sins?  Are  they  not  still  visited  upon  him,  and 
where  is  his  salvation,  and  where  comes  in  the 
grace  of  God?  Salvation  saves  the  sinner  from 
his  sin  in  two  respects.  It  saves  him  absolutely 
from  the  unimpeded  course  and  final  end  of  sin 
by  breaking  off  the  sinner's  relation  to  this  course 
and  end.  The  further  course  and  final  end  of  the 
prodigal's  waywardness  would  have  been  deeper 
misery  and  death;  and  from  this  he  was  saved  by 
returning  in  penitence  to  his  father's  house.  So 
the  final  end  of  unchecked  sin  is  ever  deeper 
degradation  and  misery  in  this  world  and  eternal 


l8o         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF  CHRISTIANITY 

death  in  the  next;  and  from  this  course  and  end 
the  believing  sinner  is  saved  outright  by  the  par- 
doning grace  of  God.  It  is  wholly  an  act  of  divine 
grace  by  which  this  is  done.  God  might  have 
justly  let  sinners  go  on  unrestrained  in  their 
course,  but  his  love  went  out  after  them  in  the 
whole  work  of  redemption  from  the  first  gleam 
of  the  promise  of  a  Saviour  to  the  Sacrifice  of 
the  Cross  and  the  final  application  of  the  Spirit; 
and  therefore  God  saves  us  out  of  his  infinite 
love  by  himself  bearing  the  burden  of  our  sin. 
VI.  But  after  we  are  thus  delivered  from  the 
full  course  and  final  end  of  our  sin,  we  must  still 
bear  the  temporary  results  of  our  remaining  sinful 
disposition  and  acts.  Salvation  in  the  soul  by  its 
very  nature  cannot  be  an  instantaneous  act,  but 
is  a  gradual  process  or  growth.  The  consequences 
of  these  remaining  sins  are  inflicted  upon  us,  but 
they  are  inflicted  as  chastisements  rather  than  as 
punishments.  They  are  remedial  measures  that  work 
together  for  our  good.  The  saved  sinner  himself 
accepts  them  in  a  penitent  and  filial  spirit.  It  is 
thus  seen  that  the  penalties  of  our  sins  are  not 
inflicted  twice,  once  on  Christ  and  then  once  on  us ; 
but  Christ  bore  their  penalty  and  we  bear  their 
chastisement.  Thus  God  is  just  and  we  are  saved, 
and  the  whole  process  exhibits  his  glorious  grace. 


CHAPTER  XXVi 


THE    CHRISTIAN    LIFE 


Salvation  having  been  begun  by  the  Spirit  in 
the  heart  is  now  to  be  worked  out  in  the  Christian 
life. 

I.  The  Christian  life  is  one  of  faith.  Faith  is 
the  initial  act  that  originates  salvation  in  the  soul, 
and  is  also  the  continuous  means  and  state  by 
which  it  is  sustained  and  developed.  We  live  by 
faith  in  all  the  lines  of  life,  from  our  lowest  physi- 
cal up  to  our  highest  spiritual  needs  and  activities. 
It  is  only  as  we  trust  one  another  that  we  can 
maintain  friendship,  do  business  or  hold  the  sim- 
plest relations  with  one  another.  Faith  is  the 
filament  that  weaves  all  our  lives  into  a  social  web, 
the  atmosphere  of  society  in  which  we  live  and 
move  and  have  our  being.  The  same  faith  sends 
its  tendril  up  and  wraps  it  around  God.  As  we 
believe  and  trust  men,  so  do  we  believe  and  trust 
God.  Faith  is  not  one  thing  when  exercised 
towards  man  and  another  when  exercised  towards 
God,  but  is  the  same  in  both  cases.  The  Chris- 
x8x 


l82         THE  BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

tian  life  is  thus  a  normal  life  in  its  fundamental 
principle;  it  is  just  our  natural  human  life  carried 
up  to  its  highest  application,  fruitage  and  power. 
Christian  faith  trusts  God  at  every  point.  It  trusts 
his  wisdom  in  the  constitution  and  government  of 
the  world;  and  when  it  cannot  understand  his 
providence  and  is  enveloped  in  twilight  or  in  dark- 
ness it  keeps  its  hand  in  his  and  walks  on  as  he 
opens  the  way.  It  trusts  his  grace  for  pardon 
and  cleansing,  wisdom  and  strength,  patience  and 
peace.  It  trusts  him  through  all  the  experiences 
of  life,  its  duties  and  dangers,  trials  and  sorrows, 
and  for  final  triumph  in  death.  The  Christian  thus 
lives  by  faith,  "as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible," 
looking  not  at  the  things  which  are  seen  but  at 
the  things  which  are  not  seen,  and  having  his 
anchor  cast  within  the  veil.  Such  faith  is  not 
weakness  but  strength.  It  is  faith  that  has  made 
men  masterful  in  all  the  walks  of  life,  and  in  no 
other  line  does  it  rise  to  such  heights  and  attain 
such  heroism  and  power  as  when  it  lays  hold  of 
God  and  lives  a  life  of  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

II.  The  Christian  life  is  one  of  prayer.  Prayer 
is  the  soul  giving  expression  of  its  needs  and 
aspirations  unto  God.  Expression  is  necessary  to 
the  very  existence  of  life.  Thought  cannot  grow 
into  clearness  and  power  except  as  it  shapes  itself 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  183 

into  words.  Max  Muller  maintained  that  we  can- 
not even  think  without  words.  "To  think,"  he 
said,  "is  to  speak  low,  and  to  speak  is  to  think 
aloud."  To  feel  our  needs,  then,  and  to  have 
desires  for  fellowship  with  God,  we  must  give 
voice  to  them  in  prayer.  Such  expression  makes 
them  definite  and  vivid  for  ourselves  and  gives 
them  virtue  with  God.  The  practice  of  prayer  is 
thus  a  powerful  means  of  calling  out  our  souls  and 
raising  them  to  a  higher  level  of  spiritual  experi- 
ence. This  reflex  influence  of  prayer,  however, 
depends  for  its  reality  and  efficiency  upon  the 
power  that  prayer  has  with  God.  If  prayer  were 
simply  a  self-contained  subjective  exercise  and 
state  of  the  soul  it  could  no  more  lift  us  up  than 
we  can  rise  to  the  stars  by  tugging  at  ourselves. 
Prayer  is  a  genuine  speaking  to  God  and  entering 
into  fellowship  with  him  so  that  he  can  enter  into 
us  and  work  through  us  and  for  us.  Whatever 
philosophical  difficulties  may  be  thrown  around  the 
subject  of  prayer,  in  its  essential  nature  it  is  as 
natural  and  simple  as  a  child's  speech  to  its  father. 
It  is  making  known  our  thoughts  and  wants  unto 
God  in  a  spirit  of  humble  dependence  and  filial 
fellowship;  and  then  God  can  and  does  answer  us 
in  accordance  with  his  own  wisdom  and  grace. 
Prayer  harmonizes  our  souls  with  God  so  that  we 


184         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

grow  calm  and  clear  and  begin  to  see  things  as  he 
sees  them,  as  a  mountain  lake  when  it  is  perfectly 
still  reflects  the  blue  sky  and  mirrors  the  full-orbed 
image  of  the  sun.  To  a  soul  in  such  a  state  God 
can  disclose  his  will,  into  it  he  can  pour  his  Spirit, 
and  through  it  and  for  it  he  can  work  out  his 
purpose.  Through  the  habit  and  spirit  of  prayer 
the  Christian  grows  into  intimacy  with  God  so  that 
he  comes  to  know  his  mind  and  walks  in  his 
companionship  in  strength  and  peace  and  joy. 

III.  The  Christian  life  feeds  on  the  truth.  It 
is  based  on  reality  throughout,  and  has  no  affinity 
with  or  place  for  superstition,  delusion,  error,  or 
unreality  of  any  kind  or  degree.  God  is  a  God  who 
cannot  lie,  and  all  his  works  and  words  are  reality 
and  truth.  A  fundamental  duty  of  the  Christian 
is  to  know  the  truth  and  fear  it  not.  He  is  to 
have  and  exercise  the  truth-loving  spirit  and  make 
truth  his  pursuit  and  passion.  He  is  to  seek  to  get 
at  reality  for  himself,  and  not  to  be  governed 
by  mere  tradition  or  authority,  or  by  personal 
interest  and  partisanship.  However  vital  and 
sacred  a  cherished  belief  may  seem,  it  ought  to 
be  given  up  when  it  is  found  to  be  not  true. 
The  obligation  to  know  the  truth  is  one  of  the 
most  fundamental  in  the  whole  field  of  conscience, 
and  it  binds  the  Christian  with  special  force.     It 


THE    CHRISTIAN    LIFE  185 

is  his  duty  to  be  teachable  and  hospitable  towards 
all  truth  in  every  field,  whether  in  history  or 
science  or  art,  as  well  as  in  morals  and  religion. 
But  the  truth  that  is  specially  vital  to  the  Chris- 
tian is  that  which  pertains  to  God  and  Christ  and 
the  Christian  life,  and  to  this  study  he  should 
give  himself  with  special  diligence  and  ardor. 
While  this  truth  is  set  forth  and  illuminated  in 
Christian  literature,  yet  its  original  and  richest 
source  is  the  inspired  Word  of  God.  The  Bible 
is  the  winnowed  wisdom  of  ages  of  religious  and 
Christian  experience.  Into  it  God  has  breathed 
through  holy  men  the  thoughts  he  would  have 
us  know  and  meditate  upon,  the  words  that  are 
spirit  and  life.  Generations  have  fed  upon  this 
book  and  found  it  the  bread  of  the  heart.  It  has 
passed  into  the  blood  of  Christendom  and  pro- 
duced its  noblest  men  and  women,  its  purest  saints 
and  most  beautiful  souls.  As  we  get  the  truth 
contained  in  this  book  absorbed  and  assimilated 
into  us  we  think  the  thoughts  of  God  and  are  made 
strong  in  his  strength. 

IV.  The  Christian  is  thus  to  maintain  a  deep 
and  rich  inner  life.  Faith,  prayer  and  meditation 
are  the  means  by  which  he  cultivates  his  soul  on 
its  inner  side.  All  worthy  life  must  first  be  lived 
inwardly  before  it  can  be  lived  outwardly.     The 


l86         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF    CHRISTIANITY 

architect  thinks  his  building  through  in  his  mind 
before  he  erects  it  in  stone  and  steel.  The  artist 
paints  his  picture  in  the  gallery  of  his  imagination 
before  he  puts  it  on  canvas,  and  the  musician  hears 
his  music  in  the  chamber  of  his  soul  before  he 
pours  it  through  his  voice  or  flings  it  through 
his  fingers  out  upon  the  world.  Long  preparation 
must  precede  successful  execution.  The  harvest 
may  ripen  in  a  day  and  be  gathered  in  an  hour, 
but  it  has  been  growing  through  months,  if  not 
years.  A  great  surgeon  said  that  if  he  had  only 
three  minutes  for  a  critical  operation,  he  would 
take  two  to  get  ready.  Jesus  took  thirty  years 
of  preparation  for  just  three  years  of  work.  So 
we  need  to  meditate  much  in  order  that  we  may  be 
architects  and  artists  in  living.  Often  should  we 
sit  in  solitude  and  silence  and  grow  acquainted 
with  ourselves,  look  ourselves  in  the  face  and  feel 
our  spiritual  pulse  and  see  what  manner  of  persons 
we  are.  It  is  possible  for  us  to  be  veritable 
strangers  to  ourselves.  Some  people  are  afraid 
to  be  alone,  and  are  always  itching  for  excitement 
and  craving  a  crowd.  Such  a  life  is  superficial, 
feverish  and  fretful,  and  is  sure  to  end  in  disap- 
pointment and  misery.  We  should  have  deep  roots 
to  our  inner  life  by  which  we  grow  acquainted 
with  and  gain  control  over  ourselves  and  gather 


THE  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  187 

resources  that  will  give  us  full  mastery  and  might. 
V.  Yet  the  Christian  life  is  of  a  highly  social 
nature  and  from  its  inner  fountain  should  flow  in 
rich  streams  into  outer  life.  Its  first  outer  expres- 
sion is  in  righteous  character  and  conduct.  The 
inner  life  and  the  outer  must  match.  Faith  must 
flow  into  fact,  creed  into  character,  and  character 
into  conduct.  Truth  is  a  fundamental  virtue  of 
Christian  life.  The  Christian  should  be  a  man  of 
his  word,  whose  every  utterance  and  act  represents 
reality,  so  that  men  seeing  one  side  or  angle  of 
his  life  will  know  him  through  and  through.  Inner 
purity  of  soul  that  sees  God  should  express  itself 
in  outer  purity  of  life,  as  the  inner  nature  of  the 
fruit  comes  out  in  its  golden  skin  or  rosy  bloom. 
The  Christian  should  be  a  man  of  honesty  and 
honor,  squaring  his  business  transactions  and  all 
his  affairs  with  the  strictest  integrity  and  fairness. 
In  his  domestic  relations  he  should  be  pure  and 
faithful,  as  good  a  Christian  in  the  privacy  of  the 
home  as  in  the  light  of  publicity.  His  character 
and  conduct  should  be  marked  by  the  gentle  and 
generous  virtues  of  the  Christian  life,  self-control, 
patience  and  peaceableness,  kindness  and  courtesy, 
brotherly  good-will  and  helpfulness,  benevolence 
and  charity,  goodness  and  love,  cheerfulness  and 
joy,  sympathy  and  sacrifice.     He  is  to  be  a  living 


l88         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

gospel,  known  and  read  of  all  men,  doing  the  same 
things  Jesus  did  and  in  a  way  reproducing  him. 
The  Christian  is  to  be  Christ  continued  and  dupli- 
cated. And  he  is  to  live  this  life  in  this  present 
world.  He  is  not  to  be  a  dreamy  visionary  or 
fanatic,  standing  aloof  from  the  world  and  gazing 
into  heaven,  but  a  man  of  flesh  and  blood,  down 
in  the  very  midst  and  heart  of  this  world,  taking 
part  in  all  its  affairs,  its  business  and  politics,  as 
well  as  its  religion  and  worship.  The  Christian  is 
to  be  emphatically  in  the  world  and  of  the  world, 
and  yet  is  to  keep  himself  unspotted  from  the 
world. 

VI.  The  Christian  life  is  one  of  fellowship. 
While  the  Christian  in  the  world  is  to  maintain 
friendly  and  helpful  relations  as  far  as  possible 
with  all  men,  yet  his  special  affinities  are  to  be 
found  in  the  household  and  brotherhood  of  faith. 
The  human  soul  is  very  social  and  absorbent  in 
its  nature  and  gathers  strength  and  satisfaction 
from  souls  of  its  own  kind.  Men  of  the  same 
trade  or  profession  or  science  or  art  get  together 
in  various  kinds  of  unions  and  societies,  and  from 
such  union  they  derive  mutual  profit  and  pleasure. 
The  same  principle  should  draw  and  bind  Chris- 
tians together.  Faith  thus  strengthens  faith,  and 
love  begets  love.     While  this  fellowship  is  to  be 


THE   CHRISTIAN   LIFE  189 

maintained  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  yet  it  finds 
its  home  and  fullest  expression  in  the  Church.  In 
its  worship  and  work  believers  are  drawn  into  the 
finest  fellowship  and  upon  them  as  thus  assembled 
together  God  pours  out  his  most  abundant  and 
richest  blessings. 

VII.  The  Christian  life  is  one  of  service. 
Christ  having  found  Philip,  Philip  then  found  Na- 
thanael,  and  thus  started  the  golden  chain  that  has 
lengthened  down  to  us.  The  Christian  life  by  its 
very  nature  is  self-propagating,  spreading  from 
heart  to  heart.  Christians  are  saved  to  serve ;  hav- 
ing received  freely,  they  are  to  give  freely,  and  thus 
the  Kingdom  of  God  is  widened  over  the  world. 
It  is  the  duty  and  should  be  the  business  of  every 
Christian  to  try  to  win  others  to  the  Christian 
life  through  his  personal  example,  persuasion  and 
prayer.  Every  Christian  life  is  in  touch  with  other 
lives,  and  at  the  points  of  contact  should  endeavor 
to  impart  the  precious  gift  of  grace.  Most  con- 
verts are  won  through  this  personal  influence, 
and  the  Christian  should  never  forget  that  he  is 
saved  himself  in  order  that  he  may  save  others. 
Not  only  is  the  Christian  to  serve  God  in  this 
special  work  of  winning  other  souls,  but  he  is 
to  turn  his  whole  life  into  Christian  service.  He  is 
not  to  confine  his  religion  to  one  day  in  the  week. 


190         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

but  diffuse  it  through  all  his  days.  His  pleasures 
are  to  be  as  pure  as  his  prayers,  and  Saturday 
afternoon  as  holy  with  him  as  Sabbath  morning. 
His  work  is  to  be  his  worship,  and  whether  he 
eats  or  drinks,  buys  or  sells,  prays  or  plays,  he 
is  to  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God. 

The  ideal  of  the  Christian  life  is  a  high  and  holy 
one  and  we  can  never  feel  that  we  have  attained 
it.  But  we  are  to  work  at  it  and  ever  strive 
towards  it  through  our  faults  and  failures,  trials 
and  tears;  and  through  such  perseverance  we  shall 
find  it  as  blessed  as  it  is  beautiful,  and  it  will  ever 
lure  us  on  towards  that  final  perfection  we  shall 
realize  when  we  pass  through  the  gates  into  the 
city. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 


THE   CHURCH 


The  soul  must  have  a  body,  ideas  must  have 
hands  and  feet.  The  first  Christians  were  organ- 
ized into  societies,  and  the  Church  is  the  body  of 
Christ. 

I.  Jesus  himself  founded  a  church.  He  did 
not  simply  cast  his  ideas  out  into  the  air  to  survive 
or  perish,  but  committed  them  to  men  whom  he 
had  trained  to  receive  and  propagate  them.  At 
first  he  attempted  to  work  inside  the  Jewish 
Church,  but  this  plan  soon  had  to  be  abandoned. 
The  old  organization  had  lost  vitality  and  plas- 
ticity and  had  become  inhospitable  and  intractable 
to  new  ideas  and  further  adaptation ;  it  had  crystal- 
lized into  traditionalism  that  refused  to  yield  to  new 
demands ;  it  had  gone  to  seed  in  its  husk  and  would 
bear  no  more  fruit.  Jesus  therefore  was  forced  to 
work  outside  of  its  bounds  and  to  lay  new  founda- 
tions. He  left  the  temple  with  its  elaborate  ritual 
and  resorted  to  the  simpler  synagogue,  and  from 
the  synagogue  was  driven  to  the  street  and  sea- 

191 


192  THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

shore.  Out  in  the  open,  freed  from  the  restrictions 
of  the  past,  he  made  a  new  start.  He  gathered 
twelve  men  of  unsophisticated  minds  around  him 
and  for  three  years  poured  his  own  mind  into  them 
and  molded  them  to  his  purpose.  Even  they  were 
somewhat  refractory  material  and  one  of  them 
proved  false,  but  at  length  they  responded  to  his 
touch  and  became  mighty  men  in  the  history  of 
religion  and  of  the  world.  Jesus  mentioned  the 
Church  only  twice.  In  one  instance  (Matthew 
18:17)  he  directed  that  when  one  has  a  difficulty 
with  a  brother  and  cannot  settle  it  with  him  priv- 
ately, he  is  "to  tell  it  unto  the  Church,"  in  which 
case  the  word  evidently  refers  to  the  local  congre- 
gation. In  the  other  instance  (Matthew  16:18)  he 
said  unto  Peter,  who  had  just  made  the  great  con- 
fession, "Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living 
God,"  "And  I  also  say  unto  thee,  that  thou  art 
Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church."  , 
This  refers  to  the  universal  Church,  which  is  built 
upon  the  truth  Peter  had  confessed.  Nothing  is 
said  in  the  Gospels  about  the  organization,  polity, 
officers  and  ordinances  of  the  Church,  except  that 
Jesus  adopted  the  rite  of  baptism  and  instituted  the 
ordinance  of  the  Supper.  Thus  Christ  himself 
made  little  of  the  Church,  and  gave  only  its  germ 
and  left  its  development  to  later  times. 


THE   CHURCH  I93 

II.  This  development  proceeds  in  the  Acts, 
Epistles  and  other  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
in  which  the  Church  fills  a  large  place,  being  men- 
tioned one  hundred  and  twelve  times.  As  the  apos- 
tles went  forth  preaching  they  founded  churches 
and  rapidly  planted  them  around  the  Mediter- 
ranean shore.  These  were  at  first  only  informal 
groups  or  gatherings  of  believers,  who  simply  met 
for  worship.  There  were  no  officials,  polity  or 
creed,  but  simply  democratic  bodies  of  people  that 
acted  together  out  of  one  mind.  They  were  desig- 
nated as  "all  the  beloved  of  God,  called  to  be 
saints"  (Romans  1:7),  the  "faithful  brethren  in 
Christ"  (Colossians  1:2),  and  by  similar  descriptive 
names.  But  presently  there  was  need  of  concerted 
action,  and  then  organization  and  officers  became 
necessary.  The  outstanding  fact  on  this  subject  is 
that  there  are  no  divinely  appointed  or  authori- 
tative officers  and  polities  enjoined  upon  the  Church 
in  the  New  Testament,  but  these  grew  up  as  they 
were  needed  to  meet  existing  conditions.  The 
first  instance  of  such  need  was  that  of  the  deacons, 
recorded  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Acts.  The 
twelve  apostles  did  the  preaching  and  exercised 
general  oversight  of  affairs  until  after  the  out- 
pouring at  Pentecost.  As  the  church  grew  this 
work  became  too  heavy  for  them,  especially  the 
13 


194         THE  BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

care  of  the  poor,  and  they  called  the  whole  body 
of  disciples  together  and  submitted  the  case  unto 
them.  "Look  ye  out  therefore,  brethren,  from 
among  you  seven  men  of  good  report,  full  of  the 
Spirit  and  of  wisdom,  whom  we  may  appoint  over 
this  business."  In  this  quite  democratic  way  the 
office  of  deacon  was  instituted  and  seven  men 
were  chosen  to  fill  it.  No  divine  precedent  or 
command  was  appealed  to,  but  the  simple  practical 
necessity  for  the  office  was  the  sufficient  justifica- 
tion for  its  institution. 

III.  In  a  similar  way  other  offices  arose.  Lists 
of  these  are  given  (Romans  12:7;  i  Corinthians 
12:28;  Ephesians  4:11),  including  "apostles," 
"prophets,"  "evangelists,"  "pastors  and  teachers," 
"healings,"  "helps."  These  discharged  the  duties 
indicated  by  their  names,  but  were  not  officials 
divinely  ordained  and  enjoined  on  the  churches; 
they  came  into  service  as  they  were  needed  or  as 
they  displayed  aptitudes  for  special  tasks.  All  the 
members  were  workers  as  they  had  "gifts  differ- 
ing." The  newborn  Church  was  full  of  life  and 
gave  birth  to  many  offices  or  activities,  some  of 
which  were  short-lived  and  others  survived.  Prac- 
tical need  was  their  origin,  and  utility  was  their 
justification.  Even  the  gift  of  "tongues,"  that 
seemed  so  purely  miraculous,  was  subjected  to  this 


THE   CHURCH  I95 

test  (I  Corinthians  14:19).  Out  of  these  many  ten- 
tative offices  several  have  come  down  to  us.  Pres- 
ently we  find  "elders"  in  all  the  churches  as  their 
pastors  and  teachers,  or  spiritual  leaders.  They  are 
first  mentioned  (Acts  11:30)  without  any  account 
of  their  origin,  and  Paul  and  Barnabas  on  their  first 
missionary  journey  "ordained  them  elders  in  every 
church."  Paul  sent  for  "the  elders  of  the  church" 
of  Ephesus  and  charged  them  "to  feed  the  church 
of  God,"  Bishops  are  also  mentioned  (Philippians 
I  :i),  and  these  are  generally  held  to  be  the  same  as 
the  "elders,"  for  Paul  in  charging  the  Ephesian 
elders  (Acts  20:17-35)  bids  them  to  "Take  heed 
unto  yourselves,  and  to  all  the  flock,  in  the  which 
the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made  you  bishops."  We  also 
read  of  "deacons"  (I  Timothy  3:8),  who  served  in 
various  ways,  but  appear  to  have  had  the  especial 
care  of  the  poor.  There  is  not  a  word  said  in  the 
New  Testament  about  handing  down  any  office  by 
Apostolic  succession.  The  apostles  originally  were 
the  immediate  disciples  and  witnesses  of  Christ, 
and  in  this  sense  could  have  no  successors.  The 
development  of  these  simple  offices  into  a  vast  hier- 
archy was  the  work  of  a  later  age. 

IV.  The  churches  at  first  were  more  or  less  in- 
dependent of  one  another,  as  they  were  founded 
here  and  there  by  the  missionary  apostles  and  evan- 


196         THE   BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

gelists.  Church  government  was  of  the  Congrega- 
tional type.  But  presently  important  matters  arose 
in  which  it  was  necessary  for  the  churches  to  con- 
sult and  act  together.  A  critical  instance  of  such 
necessity  was  the  question  of  circumcision  and  the 
whole  Mosaic  system.  Was  this  still  binding  on 
Christians,  or  was  it  abrogated?  On  this  question 
hung  the  whole  future  of  Christianity,  whether 
it  was  to  remain  a  Jewish  sect  or  become  a  world 
religion.  Out  of  this  question  grew  the  first  Coun- 
cil, General  Conference,  or  General  Assembly  of 
the  Church  at  Jerusalem.  "The  apostles  and 
elders"  met  at  Jerusalem  "about  this  question," 
and  after  much  debate  it  was  setded  that  Chris- 
tianity was  not  simply  an  improved  Judaism  but 
a  universal  religion,  and  a  decree  embodying  this 
result  was  sent  out  to  the  churches.  Thus  general 
church  government  or  polity  arose  out  of  a  prac- 
tical situation,  just  as  did  various  offices  in  the 
individual  congregation.  "As  God's  people,"  says 
Fairbairn,  "are  a  free  people.  He  allows  them  to 
organize  their  own  polities,  the  best  polities  always 
being  the  most  deeply  rooted  in  love,  and  so  most 
creative  of  the  spiritual  and  redeeming  graces." 
The  Church  was  thus  a  democratic  institution  in 
its  origin,  and  we  have  still  a  Christian  right  to 
exercise    this    democratic    spirit    and    adapt    the 


THE   CHURCH  I97 

Church  to  the  needs  of  our  day.  Any  Church 
polity  is  good  that  meets  conditions  and  does  effec- 
tive work,  and  such  success  is  the  seal  of  the 
divine  approval. 

V.  This  fact  throws  light  upon  the  question  of 
Church  unity.  The  simple,  democratic  original 
forms  of  church  polity  at  length  became  caught 
in  the  vast  mesh  of  Roman  imperialism  and  grad- 
ually grew  into  a  counterpart  of  Rome,  "the  ghost 
of  the  Roman  Empire  sitting  on  its  grave."  The 
Church  became  a  worldly  despotism  and  had  unity 
with  a  vengeance.  But  the  system  broke  to  pieces 
of  its  own  weight  and  corruption,  first  into  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Churches  and  then  into 
Protestantism.  Rome  still  maintains  its  imperial- 
istic claims,  and  there  are  those  in  Protestant  com- 
munions who  want  to  attain  and  exercise  the  same 
kind  of  unity.  Union  is  a  growing  idea  and  spirit 
among  the  divided  branches  of  Protestantism,  but 
they  can  never  go  back  to  the  mechanical  monar- 
chial  basis  of  church  unity.  Such  a  basis  has  no 
ground  in  the  New  Testament,  which  is  a  demo- 
cratic book  through  and  through  and  exhibits  only 
democratic  churches.  This  mechanical  unity  has 
had  its  trial  on  an  immense  scale,  and  it  proved 
impracticable  and  dangerous  and  had  to  be  broken 
up,  never  to  be  restored.     The  true  unity  of  the 


198         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

Church  is  biological  and  not  mechanical,  of 
the  Spirit  and  not  of  the  form.  Humanity  is  a 
unity,  and  yet  it  breaks  into  many  races  and 
nations,  all  breathing  the  same  air  and  pulsing 
with  the  same  blood.  So  the  true  unity  of  the 
Church  consists  in  the  same  Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ 
knitting  its  varied  members  into  one  body.  This 
does  not  justify  all  the  unhappy  divisions  in  the 
Church.  There  are  families  of  denominations  that 
should  be  unified,  and  some  divisions  are  born  of 
human  selfishness  and  sin.  But  there  is  no  ground 
in  Scripture  or  history  for  the  theory  that  all 
churches  should  be  united  into  one  huge  political 
organization:  there  is  much  against  such  a  dream. 
The  Church  of  Christ  is  not  really  divided  against 
itself  in  these  divisions,  but  it  is  differentiated 
into  the  members  of  an  organism  for  greater 
efficiency. 

VI.  It  is  surprising  to  find  how  small  a  part  the 
question  of  a  creed  played  in  the  New  Testament 
churches  as  compared  with  the  tremendous  part 
it  has  played  in  historic  Christianity  and  still  plays 
in  our  modern  churches.  The  germs  of  creeds 
are  found  in  the  New  Testament,  but  these  are  only 
broad  and  simple  statements  which  have  little 
resemblance  to  our  elaborate  creeds.  Christ  virtu- 
ally made  Peter's  utterance,  "Thou  art  the  Christ, 


THE   CHURCH  I99 

the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  the  basal  creed  of  his 
Church.  In  the  Epistles  we  begin  to  find  "faithful 
sayings,"  such  as  "This  is  a  faithful  saying  and 
worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ  Jesus  came 
into  the  world  to  save  sinners."  These  were  Chris- 
tian proverbs  that  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth 
until  they  assumed  fixed  forms  and  were  in  the 
nature  of  germinal  creeds.  Yet  the  question  of  a 
systematic  and  formal  statement  of  Christian  faith 
as  a  basis  of  Christian  thought  and  fellowship 
was  bound  to  arise.  The  human  mind  must  think 
upon  its  materials,  and  Christianity  could  not 
escape  the  process  of  critical  analysis  and  construc- 
tion. Out  of  this  necessity  arose  the  great  theo- 
logical controversies  of  the  early  Church,  issuing 
in  Ecumenical  Councils  that  drew  up  authoritative 
forms  of  statement  or  historic  creeds.  This  proc- 
ess has  worked  its  way  down  into  our  day  and  is 
still  active  in  all  the  schools  of  thought  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  It  is  this  process  that  shows  that 
Christian  truth  is  a  living,  growing  body  and  not  a 
dead  and  fossilized  system ;  and  because  its  truth  is 
alive  the  Church  must  re-examine,  revise  and 
rewrite  its  creeds  in  every  generation,  and  thus 
bring  them  up  to  date  into  harmony  with  wider 
knowledge  and  deeper  insight  into  Scripture  and 
a    truer    apprehension    of    the    Spirit    of    Christ. 


200         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF    CHRISTIANITY 

Such  investigation  and  revision  may  sometimes  be 
attended  with  anxiety  and  alarm,  but  it  is  neces- 
sary and  good  in  its  place  and  is  a  sign,  not  of 
death,  but  of  life. 

VII.  Ordinances  have  ever  proved  dangerous  in 
religion,  the  outer  form  constricting  the  inner 
spirit,  the  husk  smothering  the  grain.  Yet  every 
religion  has  them,  and  the  Christian  Church  must 
have  them.  Never  was  there  such  scorching  con- 
demnation of  outworn  and  dead  ordinances  as 
leaped  like  lightning  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  Christ; 
yet  he  instituted  or  adopted  two  of  his  own.  An 
army  must  have  a  flag,  a  party  a  platform,  and 
every  society  has  something  in  the  nature  of  a  sign 
or  badge  of  membership  and  loyalty.  Jesus  swept 
away  the  vast  gorgeous  system  of  Jewish  ritual, 
but  he  gave  his  followers  two  simple  and  deeply 
significant  ordinances.  Baptism  came  into  the 
Church  from  the  Jewish  system,  but  was  invested 
with  new  significance.  It  is  a  sign  of  admission 
into  the  Church,  either  as  an  inherited  birthright, 
as  in  infant  baptism,  or  as  a  symbol  of  repentance 
and  forgiveness  in  adult  confession  of  faith.  It 
affords  a  means  by  which  such  birthright  may  be 
sealed  or  such  confession  may  be  signalized,  and 
thus  makes  the  act  more  definite,  vivid,  public, 
fixed  and  final.     The  other  ordinance,  the  Lord's 


THE  CHURCH  201 

Supper,  is  a  sign  and  seal  of  personal  fellowship 
with  Christ  and  a  pledge  of  renewed  loyalty  to  him. 
The  ordinance  is  simple,  universal  and  beautiful 
in  its  elements  and  significance.  As  the  bread  and 
wine  pass  into  the  believer's  body  and  are  assimi- 
lated into  his  physical  life  and  strength,  so  does 
the  Spirit  of  Christ  pass  into  the  believer's  soul 
to  reappear  in  the  strength  and  fruitfulness, 
beauty  and  blessedness  of  his  life.  Jesus  put 
emphasis  upon  these  ordinances  as  of  vital  impor- 
tance, and  his  true  followers  will  never  regard  them 
lightly,  but  will  be  faithful  in  their  observance 
"till  he  come." 

VIII.  The  end  of  the  Church  is  service.  It 
is  organized  as  the  Body  of  Christ  to  manifest 
his  Spirit  and  do  his  work  in  the  world.  It  is  a 
means  by  which  its  members  hold  deeper  fellow- 
ship with  one  another  and  with  God  and  Christ. 
Their  common  worship  stirs  up  their  spiritual 
nature  and  needs  and  spreads  its  contagion  through 
their  number  and  thus  powerfully  stimulates, 
strengthens  and  enriches  their  Christian  life.  God 
can  pour  more  of  his  Spirit  upon  five  hundred 
believers  assembled  with  one  accord  in  one  place 
than  upon  the  same  number  scattered  in  isolation, 
as  Pentecost  proves.  The  Church  has  been  and 
is  a  powerful   agency   for  conserving,   defending. 


202         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

developing  and  propagating  the  Christian  faith 
and  life.  Its  inner  mission  with  its  own  mem- 
bers issues  and  is  completed  in  its  outer  mission 
to  the  world.  It  is  the  organized  agency  by 
which  Christian  institutions,  churches,  schools, 
hospitals,  are  planted  and  maintained;  by  which 
Christian  principles  and  forces  are  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  general  life  and  welfare  of  society;  and 
especially  by  which  Christianity  is  extended  over 
the  world  through  home  and  foreign  missions. 
It  is  the  main  field  of  Christian  service  in  which 
Christians  work  out  their  own  salvation  into  the 
lives  of  others  and  thereby  work  it  in  more  deeply 
into  themselves.  It  has  been  a  long  time  in  the 
world,  but  its  mission  has  only  just  begun,  it  is 
still  young  and  full  of  the  vitality  and  hope  of 
youth  and  is  destined  to  leaven  the  whole  lump 
of  humanity.  It  is  still  imperfect  and  has  many  sins 
of  its  own  to  answer  for,  but  it  has  in  it  the  life 
and  love,  the  mercy  and  the  might  of  God,  and  will 
yet  become  a  glorious  Church,  not  having  spot  or 
wrinkle  or  any  such  thing. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 


THE    KINGDOM    OF    GOD 


The  Kingdom  of  God  is  God's  rule  on  earth 
and  in  heaven.  It  is  a  larger  idea  than  that  of 
the  Church,  being  the  end  of  which  the  Church  is 
the  means  and  reaching  through  time  and  eternity, 

I.  In  the  widest  sense  this  kingdom  includes  the 
whole  universe.  All  the  physical  elements  and  oper- 
ations of  the  world  are  the  immediate  working  of 
the  mind  and  will  of  God,  and  therefore  are  under 
his  direct  and  absolute  rule.  However  tangled  and 
chaotic  the  physical  world  may  seem  to  us  at  points, 
it  is  a  kingdom  of  perfect  order  and  obedience  in 
which  no  atom  ever  gets  out  of  place  and  all  things 
work  together  in  beautiful  harmony.  All  spirits, 
also,  human  and  superhuman,  are  included  within 
the  reign  of  this  kingdom.  Isaiah  expresses  the 
absoluteness  of  this  reign  when  he  represents  the 
Lord  as  saying,  "I  form  the  light,  and  create  dark- 
ness; I  make  peace,  and  create  evil.  I  the  Lord 
do  all  these  things."  This  statement  leaves  room 
for  a  distinction  in  the  mode  of  God's  creation  of 
203 


204         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

these  moral  opposites,  but  it  asserts  his  reign  over 
both. 

11.  The  phrase  Kingdom  of  God,  however,  is 
used  in  a  narrower  sense  as  designating  God's 
reign  in  the  hearts  and  Hves  of  his  beHeving  people, 
and  this  is  the  sense  in  which  it  is  commonly  used 
in  the  Scriptures.  The  Old  Testament  is  pervaded 
with  the  idea  of  such  a  kingdom.  The  Hebrew 
monarchy  was  viewed  as  a  form  of  it,  and  the 
prophets  paint  glowing  pictures  of  its  future  per- 
fection and  power.  The  vision  varies  in  its 
features.  Sometimes  the  outer  form  of  the  king- 
dom is  emphasized,  and  at  other  times  its  inner 
moral  and  spiritual  character;  sometimes  it  relates 
specially  to  Israel,  and  then  again  Gentiles  are 
included  in  its  bounds.  It  came  to  its  fullest  expres- 
sion in  Daniel,  who  predicted:  "And  the  kingdom 
and  dominion,  and  the  greatness  of  the  kingdom 
under  the  whole  heaven,  shall  be  given  to  the  peo- 
ple of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  whose  kingdom 
is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  all  dominions  shall 
serve  and  obey  him."  As  time  went  on  the  spiri- 
tual elements  of  the  picture  faded  and  material 
colors  came  out  more  strongly,  until  when  Christ 
came  the  Jews  were  passionately  cherishing  the 
hope  of  a  worldly  kingdom,  with  Jerusalem  as  its 
capital  and  themselves   in  its   chief  offices.    This 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  20$ 

danger  of  lapsing  from  spiritual  to  material  views 
of  the  kingdom  has  ever  attended  religion,  and  it 
befell    Christianity   itself. 

III.  Jesus  rescued  the  idea  of  the  kingdom  from 
its  Jewish  perversion  and  restored  it  to  its  spiri- 
tual purity.  The  kingdom  fills  a  large  place  in 
his  teaching,  the  term  occurring  one  hundred  and 
twelve  times  in  the  Gospels,  while  the  Church  is 
mentioned  only  twice.  His  first  announcement 
was  that  "the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand,"  and 
during  his  ministry  "Jesus  went  about  all  the  cities 
and  villages,  teaching  in  their  synagogues,  and 
preaching  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom."  Fairbaim 
thus  summarizes  the  teaching  of  Jesus  as  to 
the  kingdom:  "He  comes  to  found  or  create  it. 
His  instrument  is  preaching  or  teaching;  His  mes- 
sage is  the  gospel  of  the  kingdom.  He  is  the 
Sower  who  casts  the  seed,  which  is  the  Word, 
into  the  hearts  of  men.  He  defines  it  by  various 
terms :  it  is  *of  heaven'  in  contradistinction  from  'the 
kingdom  of  Satan' — it  is  the  realm  of  healing, 
harmony,  love,  and  beneficence.  It  is  a  kingdom 
of  truth — He  is  a  King  by  virtue  of  His  very  being, 
and  He  bears  witness  to  the  truth,  while  His  citizens 
are  the  men  who,  being  of  the  truth,  hear  His 
voice.  It  is  present;  men  may  enter  it,  are  even 
within  it;  the  terms  of  entrance  are  obedience  to 


206         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

the  Word,  or  the  child-spirit.  It  comes  without 
observation,  spreads  quietly  like  leaven,  grows  like 
seed.  It  is  ethical  in  character ;  to  seek  it  is  to  seek 
the  righteousness  of  God,  to  pray  for  its  coming 
is  to  ask  that  the  will  of  God  may  be  done  on 
earth  as  in  heaven.  The  men  it  honors  and 
rewards  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  the  persecuted  for 
righteousness'  sake,  those  who  do  the  will  of  God, 
confess  Christ  before  men,  cultivate  His  spirit, 
live  His  life  of  ministry  and  grace.  The  signs  of 
the  kingdom  are  all  spiritual  and  ethical,  relate 
to  gracious  helpfulness  and  service,  never  to  officers 
or  acts  ceremonial.  It  is  universal,  open  to  all 
without  respect  to  place  or  race."^ 

IV.  The  characteristic  feature  of  the  kingdom 
is  its  spirituality.  Unlike  the  Church  it  has  no 
human  organization,  officers,  ceremonies,  ordi- 
nances. It  "is  not  eating  and  drinking,  but 
righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost."  "The  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with 
observation:  neither  shall  they  say,  Lo  here!  or, 
There !  for  lo,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you." 
It  is  not  a  matter  of  outward  act  and  place,  but 
of  inner  disposition.  We  do  not  enter  it  so  much 
as  it  enters  us.  It  therefore  begins  in  each  individ- 
ual soul  by  faith  and  grows  through  effort  towards 

*  The  Place  of  Christ  in  Modern  Theology,  p.  516. 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  207 

perfection.  Its  ideal  is  to  bring  every  thought  into 
conformity  with  the  truth  of  God,  every  feeling 
into  the  purity  of  his  holiness,  every  motive  and 
deed  into  coincidence  with  his  will.  The  redeemed 
soul  is  to  be  a  kingdom  in  itself,  with  God  on  its 
throne  bringing  all  its  states  and  acts  into  harmony 
with  himself.  And  from  such  souls  as  centers, 
the  kingdom  is  to  spread  through  society,  winning 
converts  and  imparting  its  spirit  as  a  leaven  to  all 
human  institutions  and  thus  subduing  the  world 
to  God.  The  kingdom  as  far  as  it  is  realized  is 
a  state  of  harmony  in  which  God  is  immanent  in 
the  world  and  the  world  is  immanent  in  God. 
God  is  on  its  throne  as  King,  and  yet  he  is  none 
the  less  a  Father.  His  Kingship  and  Fatherhood 
are  not  antagonistic,  but  complementary  and  coin- 
cident. The  Kingship  of  God  involves  no  arbi- 
trary despotism  or  harshness,  and  his  Fatherhood 
involves  no  sentimental  weakness,  but  the  two 
combine  into  unity  so  that  he  is  a  fatherly  Sover- 
eign and  a  sovereign  Father. 

V.  The  relation  of  the  kingdom  to  the  Church 
and  the  world  may  now  be  seen.  The  kingdom 
includes  the  Church  as  the  end  includes  the  means. 
The  organization  of  the  Church,  with  its  polity, 
creeds  and  ordinances,  is  an  agency  for  instituting 
and  extending  the  kingdom  among  men.    All  that 


208         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

is  going  on  in  the  Church,  in  so  far  as  it  is  con- 
tributing to  the  spiritual  growth  of  men,  belongs  to 
the  kingdom  as  its  means.  But  the  kingdom  is  also 
wider  and  deeper  than  the  Church  and  includes  all 
the  forces  that  make  for  righteousness  in  the  world. 
It  reaches  out  through  the  heathen  world  and 
embraces  all  the  souls  that  according  to  their  light 
are  led  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  penitence  and  faith 
towards  God.  It  is  a  great  truth  of  the  kingdom 
that  "God  is  no  respecter  of  persons:  but  in  every 
nation  he  that  feareth  him,  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness is  acceptable  to  him."  We  know  not  how 
many  humble  souls  out  in  heathen  darkness  thus 
belong  to  the  kingdom ;  missionaries  all  testify  to 
their  presence.  It  also  includes  all  believing  souls 
in  Christian  lands  that  are  not  in  connection  with 
the  visible  Church.  Some  persons  are  in  the 
Church  that  are  not  in  the  kingdom,  and  some 
are  in  the  kingdom  that  are  not  in  the  Church. 
Further,  all  agencies  that  are  working  for  the 
advancement  of  this  kingdom  are  included  in  it 
as  means.  Schools,  hospitals,  literature,  the  press, 
science,  art,  commerce — the  whole  complex  and 
vast  machinery  of  our  civilization  so  far  as  it  is 
doing  good  is  a  mighty  agency  for  extending 
this  kingdom  in  all  lands.  Wherever  good  is 
being  done  the  kingdom  of  God  is  being  established. 


THE   KINGDOM   OF  GOD  209 

VI.  It  is  our  calling  as  Christians  to  work 
for  the  coming  of  this  kingdom.  Christ  taught  us 
to  pray  that  it  might  come,  and  all  duties  converge 
on  this  end.  The  point  for  us  to  begin  is  in  our 
own  hearts.  By  faith  and  prayer,  resolution  and 
obedience  we  are  to  expel  the  anarchy  of  sin  from 
our  souls  and  bring  every  thought  and  imagination 
into  loyal  and  loving  submission  to  the  will  of  our 
King.  Our  hearts  will  thus  g^ow  into  the  law 
and  order,  peace  and  power,  beauty  and  blessed- 
ness of  an  inner  kingdom  which  no  outer  change 
can  touch.  We  are  then  to  work  for  the  extension 
of  this  kingdom  through  the  world.  Personal 
example,  persuasion  and  prayer  are  effective  means 
by  which  we  are  to  impart  its  spirit  to  those  with 
whom  we  are  in  immediate  contact  and  fellowship; 
and  beyond  this  personal  circle  we  are  to  work 
through  all  opportunities  and  agencies  for  its  wider 
extension  in  the  world.  The  Church  is  the  special 
means  to  this  end,  and  our  own  church  is  the 
immediate  field  that  should  receive  our  loyal  and 
energetic  service  and  sacrifice.  Yet  we  are  not  to 
forget  that  the  kingdom  is  wider  than  the  Church, 
and  therefore  we  should  be  in  sympathy  with  and 
give  our  service  as  opportunity  offers  to  all  the  va- 
ried agencies  that  subserve  the  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth.     This  will  save  us  from  sectarian  narrow- 


210         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

ness  and   enable  us  to   fulfil  our  mission   in  the 
world. 

VII.  The  future  of  the  kingdom  discloses  an 
extended  prospect  of  growth  and  struggle  ending 
in  final  triumph.  Much  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
with  respect  to  the  kingdom,  such  as  the  parables 
of  the  seed  and  of  the  leaven,  implies  a  long  period 
during  which  it  is  slowly  to  spread  over  the  field 
of  the  world  or  through  the  whole  lump  of 
humanity.  Yet  this  growth  is  also  a  warfare  in 
which  the  truth  contends  with  error  and  good 
with  evil;  and  at  times  the  conflict  thickens  up 
into  battles  that  may  convulse  the  Church  and  the 
world.  There  are  indications  that  the  kingdom  of 
darkness  will  increase  its  enmity  and  opposition 
as  the  kingdom  of  light  grows  more  intense,  and 
thus  titanic  struggles  may  come  in  later  times. 
But  all  the  prophecies  and  promises  of  Scripture 
run  forward  to  a  final  triumph  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Christianity  is  to  pervade  and  mold  our 
civilization  more  and  more  until  it  becomes  domi- 
nant. Holiness  unto  the  Lord  is  to  be  written 
upon  the  very  bells  of  the  horses — all  agents  and 
activities  are  to  be  stamped  and  imbued  with  the 
Christian  spirit  and  devoted  to  Christian  ends. 
Finally,  there  is  to  go  up  a  great  shout,  "The  king- 
dom of  this  world  is  become  the  kingdom  of  our 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  211 

Lord,  and  of  his  Christ:  and  he  shall  reign  for 
ever  and  ever."  It  is  in  some  instances  difficult 
to  tell  whether  such  predictions  are  to  be  realized 
in  this  world  or  in  the  next,  as  it  is  sometimes 
difficult  to  tell  in  a  gorgeous  sunset  just  where 
the  earth  leaves  off  and  the  sky  begins.  But  all 
things  are  rolling  on  towards  this  great  consum- 
mation, and  if  it  is  only  partially  realized  in  this 
world,  it  will  come  to  its  perfect  and  final  fulfil- 
ment in  that  city  of  God  which  is  his  eternal  and 
glorious  kingdom. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 


IMMORTALITY 


The  immortality  of  the  human  soul  is  one  of 
the  widest  and  most  vital  beliefs  in  the  world, 
engaging  the  profoundest  thought  of  philosophers 
and  poets,  furnishing  the  main  ground  of  religion, 
giving  birth  to  the  noblest  literature,  creating  lofty 
character  and  affording  satisfying  comfort  and  hope 
in  the  presence  of  the  darkest  mysteries  and  sor- 
rows of  life.  It  is  implied  and  assumed  in  all 
the  doctrines  of  redemption,  but  we  may  now  indi- 
cate some  of  the  grounds  on  which  it  rests. 

I.  The  initial  and  crucial  difficulty  in  connection 
with  belief  in  immortality  is  the  close  and  contin- 
uous union  of  the  soul  with  the  body  in  this  life. 
The  soul  and  the  body  come  into  existence  together 
and  the  one  grows  with  the  growth  of  the  other  and 
is  in  vital  dependence  on  it  at  every  point.  Every 
change  in  the  body  is  attended  with  a  corresponding 
change  in  the  soul,  and  so  also  every  change  in  the 
soul  affects  the  body.  As  the  body  wastes  away  in 
disease  or  wears  out  in  age  the  soul  appears  to 

212, 


IMMORTALITY  313 

decline  in  vigor  with  it  and  often  seems  to  be 
reduced  to  a  mere  spark  of  consciousness.  There 
are  artists  in  India  that  produce  portraits  on  water 
by  means  of  different  kinds  of  dust  of  various 
colors,  which  they  deftly  sprinkle  on  the  water  so 
as  to  form  the  features  of  the  face,  and  which 
thus  compose  a  floating  portrait  of  wonderful 
lifelikeness  and  beauty.  But  the  image  lasts  only 
as  long  as  the  water  is  perfectly  still.  A  disturb- 
ance of  the  water  distorts  the  picture,  and  a  wave 
sweeps  it  into  confusion.  The  body  of  man  is 
plainly  only  such  an  image  of  colored  dust  float- 
ing on  the  surface  of  this  agitated  and  often 
stormy  world :  is  his  soul  also  only  the  finer  por- 
tion of  this  dust  and  is  it  also  submerged  and 
destroyed  in  the  wave  of  death?  The  objection 
appears  powerful  and  gives  us  a  pause;  and  yet 
strong  considerations  break  and  overcome  its  force. 
The  dust  of  the  body  is  passing  through  a  constant 
process  of  disturbance  and  replacement,  and  yet 
the  self  abides  through  it  all  unchanged:  if  the 
soul  can  survive  this  process  by  which  it  is  contin- 
uously stripped  of  its  body  may  it  not  survive  the 
deeper  change  of  death?  The  body  presents  every 
appearance  of  being  the  tool  of  the  soul :  may  not 
a  tool  become  broken  or  worn  out  and  be  laid 
aside  without  impairing  the  skill  of  the  worker? 


214         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

When  a  telegraph  instrument  stops  working  the 
operator  does  not  stop  thinking.  The  first  cable 
laid  under  the  Atlantic  after  operating  for  a  few 
weeks  suddenly  ceased  to  transmit  messages.  The 
people  of  America  did  not  conclude  that  Europe 
had  ceased  to  exist  when  that  wire  stopped  work- 
ing: they  only  concluded  that  there  was  something 
wrong  with  the  wire.  So  we  are  not  to  conclude 
that  the  soul  has  ceased  to  exist  when  it  ceases  to 
communicate  through  the  body;  the  body  is  simply 
worn  out  or  broken,  and  the  soul  is  using  some 
other  vehicle  of  expression. 

11.  The  soul  itself  presents  strong  evidence  of 
its  eternal  value.  It  is  spirit,  and  spirit  is  the 
only  reality  we  directly  and  indubitably  know. 
It  is  not  an  impression  on  or  appearance  in  our 
minds,  as  is  the  material  world,  but  is  reality  in 
itself  of  which  we  are  immediately  aware.  We  can- 
not conceive  of  reality  ceasing  to  be,  and  therefore 
the  soul  is  of  this  imperishable  nature.  It  may  be 
said,  however,  that  this  only  guarantees  the  spiri- 
tual substance  of  the  soul  and  not  its  personality. 
Our  answer  to  this  ominous  suggestion  is  that 
personality  is  the  highest  end  we  know,  to  which 
all  other  earthly  agents  and  activities  are  only 
means.  The  rock  may  be  said  to  exist  for  the 
soil  into  which  it  crumbles,  the  soil  for  the  plant 


IMMORTALITY  21$ 

which  Sprouts  out  of  it,  the  plant  for  the  animal 
into  which  it  passes,  and  the  animal  for  man  whom 
it  serves.  This  process  has  reached  no  worthy 
achievement  until  it  comes  to  a  final  end  that  com- 
pletes and  crowns  the  whole.  This  worthy  end 
of  the  world  is  personality,  which  flowers  out  as 
the  final  bloom  and  glory  of  the  whole  process 
of  evolution  from  star  dust  to  man.  If  the  human 
soul  were  now  to  burst  and  vanish  as  a  bubble  on 
the  surface  of  water  or  a  meteor  in  the  night, 
then  the  whole  mighty  history  and  struggle  of  the 
world  has  come  to  nothing  and  ended  in  irration- 
ality. The  human  mind  and  heart  will  ever  refuse 
to  believe  in  this  wreck  of  reason  and  will  see 
in  the  soul  a  worthy  birth  from  and  end  to  the 
whole  creation  groaning  and  travailing  in  pain. 
As  the  end  of  each  stage  of  evolution  is  cut  oflF 
from  the  process  and  carried  up  to  a  higher 
stage,  the  wheat  from  the  stalk  and  the  fruit  from 
the  tree  to  serve  more  valuable  ends,  so  the  human 
soul  is  plucked  from  its  earthly  stalk  in  the  physical 
body  to  be  carried  up  into  the  bosom  of  God. 

III.  The  inner  constitution  of  the  soul  bears 
marks  of  its  endless  life.  We  never  see  a  complete 
human  soul,  a  finished  man  in  this  world;  at  his 
highest  and  best  he  only  "stands  half-built  against 
the  sky,"  a  mere  outline  and  sketch,  a  germ  and 


2l6         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

prophecy  of  what  he  may  be.  The  human  soul  is 
full  of  beginnings  that  are  never  fulfilled  in  this 
life.  The  intellect  is  such  a  beginning.  It  unfolds 
its  faculties  and  lays  hold  of  the  world  of  truth  in 
a  degree,  but  never  thinks  of  its  attainments  as 
complete;  it  never  sweeps  a  full  circle,  but  strikes 
parabolic  curves  that  widen  outward  forever. 
Every  question  it  answers  only  starts  a  hundred 
others  it  has  not  answered,  and  thus  its  ignorance, 
so  to  speak,  grows  faster  than  its  knowledge. 
However  far  it  pushes  the  boundaries  of  its  search 
it  finds  other  fields  to  explore,  and  the  circle  of  its 
light  ever  impinges  upon  a  vastly  larger  outlying 
circle  of  darkness.  Against  this  rim  of  the 
unknown  the  human  mind  ever  beats  as  an  impris- 
oned bird  against  the  bars  of  its  cage.  It  believes 
it  was  made  to  know  and  has  an  instinctive  faith 
that  God  will  yet  remove  the  bars  and  let  it  know. 
In  a  still  deeper  way  the  human  heart  is  only  a 
beginning.  It  has  aflfections  that  are  never  satis- 
fied in  this  life.  The  love  that  binds  hearts  together 
in  kinship  and  friendship  does  not  exhaust  itself 
with  the  passage  of  the  years,  but  grows  stronger 
and  sweeter,  until  it  is  more  precious  than  life 
itself.  It  looks  beyond  the  grave  and  passionately 
longs  for  reunion  and  completion  on  the  other 
side.     To  cut  this  love  off  and  not  crown  it  with 


IMMORTALITY  21/ 

endless   love   would   be   a    fatal   imperfection   and 

cruel  disappointment  in  the  plan  of  life.     This  life 

without  another  life  would  be  a  pitiful  and  painful 

fragment.  Take  away  the  hope  of  the  other  life  and 

this  life  loses  its  value  and  droops  to  the  dust. 

Give    us   the   other    life,    and   this    life    takes   on 

infinite  value  and  rises  to  eternal  issues.     God  hath 

set  eternity  in  our  heart.     The  whole  soul  is  thus 

a   prophecy   and   promise   of   eternal   life,   and   if 

this  be  not  fulfilled  the  world  is  false  in  its  very 

constitution. 

In  man's  self  arise 
August  anticipations,  symbols,  types. 
Of  a  dim  splendor  ever  on  before 
In  that  eternal  circle  life  pursues. 

My  own  dim  life  should  teach  me  this, 
That  life  shall  live  forevermore, 
Else  earth  is  darkness  at  the  core. 

And  dust  and  ashes  all  that  is. 

Thou  wilt  not  leave  us  in  the  dust: 
Thou  madest  man,  he  knows  not  why. 
He  thinks  he  was  not  made  to  die; 

And  thou  hast  made  him;  thou  art  just. 

IV.  The  incompleteness  of  this  world  is  a 
further  ground  for  this  belief.  The  world  at  many 
points  bears  the  marks  of  being  a  preparatory  insti- 
tution. It  is  a  field  m  which  buds  are  grown  but 
not  fruits  ripened,  a  workshop  in  which  products 


2l8         THE  BASAL   BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

are  roughly  shaped  out  but  not  finished,  a  school 
in  which  scholars  are  taken  through  primary  grades 
but  not  graduated.  Man  is  never  complete  in  this 
world  because  this  world  cannot  complete  him; 
and  thus  the  world  by  its  very  nature  begins 
work  which  only  another  world  can  finish.  The 
moral  condition  of  the  world  also,  its  frightful 
inequalities,  uncompensated  services  and  unrequited 
crimes,  presents  a  problem  and  spectacle  which 
only  another  world  can  solve  and  redress.  Con- 
science cries  out  against  this  world  as  a  final  settle- 
ment of  human  affairs,  and,  if  it  can  be  trusted 
and  tells  the  truth,  there  must  be  a  final  bar  where 
all  wrongs  are  made  right.  God  is  a  God  of  truth 
and  righteousness  and  will  bring  every  work  into 
judgment,  and  judgment  has  not  yet  had  its  day. 
V.  The  Fatherhood  of  God  is  a  strong  ground 
of  trust  in  this  hope.  He  has  brought  human 
souls  into  being  as  his  children,  bearing  his  image 
with  capacities  and  yearnings  for  loving  and  serv- 
ing him  and  dwelling  in  his  eternal  fellowship; 
and  as  his  children  they  are  the  objects  of  his  care 
and  love.  Such  a  mutual  relation  implies  perma- 
nency on  both  sides.  God  having  brought  forth 
such  children  can  never  be  the  same  without  them 
and  they  have  become  necessary  to  the  complete- 
ness  and   joy   of   his   infinite   life.     "The    Father 


IMMORTALITY  219 

seeketh  such  to  worship  him."  And  the  children 
never  can  be  complete  and  satisfied  without  the 
Father.  Without  him  they  are  waifs  in  a  father- 
less world,  infants  crying  in  the  night  and  with 
no  father  to  hear  their  cry.  Our  hearts  revolt 
against  such  a  conclusion,  and  we  think  better  of 
our  Father.  We  refuse  to  believe  that  the  infinite 
God  is  begetting  children  only  to  devour  them, 
and  all  the  rationality  of  our  minds  and  the  trust 
of  our  hearts  convince  us  that  he  is  true  to  his 
Fatherhood  and  will  not  cast  us  to  the  void. 

VI.  All  of  these  grounds  acquire  greater  depth 
and  massiveness  as  they  are  exhibited  in  great 
and  noble  souls.  We  can  feel  the  pull  of  gravity 
more  decisively  in  a  rock  than  in  a  grain  of  sand, 
and  can  see  more  of  the  sun's  splendor  reflected 
in  a  diamond  than  in  a  bit  of  common  glass  or 
a  pebble.  Life  mounts  up  into  vast  value  in  man 
as  compared  with  the  animal.  The  worth  of  life 
as  of  eternal  value  shines  out  more  clearly  in  some 
men  than  in  others.  We  might  doubt  this  hope 
in  the  case  of  a  degraded  savage,  but  when  we 
listen  to  Socrates  as  he  is  about  to  drink  the  hem- 
lock or  look  at  Abraham  Lincoln  as  he  bears  the 
sorrows  of  a  nation,  we  begin  to  feel  the  tremen- 
dous worth  of  their  souls,  and  the  grounds  of 
belief  in   human   immortality   grow   weighty   and 


220         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

convincing.  This  principle  reaches  its  highest 
expression  in  Jesus  Christ.  Viewing  him  simply 
on  the  human  plane  he  rises  to  heights  of  moral 
worth  and  grandeur  that  overtop  all  the  centuries 
and  shines  as  a  beacon  of  light  and  hope  to  all 
succeeding  generations.  If  that  great  Soul  and 
white  Spirit  simply  vanished  into  nothingness,  then 
we  feel  there  is  no  real  worth  and  permanent  value 
anywhere,  and  the  whole  fabric  of  the  world 
crashes  into  ruin.  We  refuse  to  tolerate  such  irra- 
tionality and  darkness,  and  believe  that  he  brings 
immortality  to  light.  These  arguments  prove  his 
immortality,  but  much  more  does  he  prove  these 
arguments. 

VII.  But  we  cannot  view  Christ  simply  on  the 
human  plane  but  must  see  him  as  the  Son  of  God 
who  has  conquered  death  and  brought  immortality 
out  of  the  region  of  reason  and  trust  into  historic 
light  and  fact.  The  evidences  that  converge  upon 
his  divinity  and  his  resurrection  have  been  pre- 
sented. They  are  conclusive  with  believers  and 
are  a  foundation  of  rock  on  which  rests  this  great 
belief.  They  set  their  seal  on  all  the  grounds 
and  intimations  of  immortality  that  have  persuaded 
the  world  of  this  hope  and  bring  it  out  of  the 
twilight  of  speculation  and  trust  into  the  clear 
light  of  day.     Standing  in  this  light  we  look  on 


IMMORTALITY  221 

death  as  only  the  door  into  our  Father's  home 
and  are  sure  of  welcome  and  recognition  there. 
Christ  is  the  Christian's  pledge  of  immortality. 
In  our  Father's  house  are  many  mansions:  if  it 
were  not  so,  he  would  have  told  us;  and  thither 
he  has  gone  to  prepare  a  place  for  us  that  where 
he  is  there  we  may  be  also.* 

*  For  a  discussion  of  immortality  in  the  light  of  ideal- 
istic philosophy  see  The  World  a  Spiritual  System,  pp. 
233-256. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 


LAST   THINGS 


"Then  cometh  the  end."  This  is  not  a  final 
world:  transitoriness  is  stamped  upon  its  whole 
framework.  Its  entire  physical  fabric  from  atoms 
to  suns  and  systems  is  in  a  state  of  ceaseless  disso- 
lution; the  hills  are  melting  down  and  the  stars 
burning  to  ashes.  All  things  human  are  evan- 
escent, and  history  is  a  stream  that  had  a  beginning 
and  must  have  an  end,  a  grand  drama  on  which 
the  curtain  will  at  last  be  rung  down. 

I.  This  end  should  enter  into  and  shape  the 
present.  We  are  made  with  the  forward  look  and 
are  constantly  considering  "the  end  thereof"  in 
all  our  affairs.  The  deeper  and  more  important 
our  plans  the  farther  should  they  reach  into  the 
future,  and  wise  character  building  requires  us  to 
lay  great  bases  in  eternity.  The  end  of  the  world 
with  all  that  it  involves  is  therefore  a  vital  matter 
in  our  present  thinking  and  living.  Yet  emphasis 
on  this  point  varies  in  different  ages  of  the  world 
and  with  different  individual  temperaments.    The 

222 


LAST  THINGS  223 

subject  fills  a  large  place  in  the  Epistles  of  the 
New  Testament  because  it  was  then  believed  that 
the  return  of  Christ  was  imminent  and  the  end  was 
likely  to  crash  upon  the  world  at  any  moment. 
And  so  these  writings  abound  in  such  solemn 
warnings  as,  "The  time  is  short,"  "The  Lord  is 
at  hand,"  "The  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand,"  and 
"Be  ye  sober  and  watch  unto  prayer."  This  sense 
of  the  imminence  of  the  end  has  faded  out  of 
our  minds,  and  we  have  a  comfortable  feeling 
of  security  in  the  stability  of  the  world.  We  put 
great  emphasis  on  character  and  conduct  in  the 
present  life  and  are  less  anxious  about  the  future. 
Nevertheless,  we  are  undoubtedly  living  in  a  world 
that  is  rushing  on  towards  its  end,  and  the  main 
reason  for  considering  that  event  still  abides. 
While  we  ought  not  to  dwell  too  much  on  such 
thoughts  and  should  not  grow  either  excited  and 
feverish  with  expectation  or  depressed  and  morbid 
with  fear,  yet  we  ought  to  keep  the  end  in  view, 
ever  "looking  for  that  blessed  hope." 

II.  The  time  of  this  end  is  unknown  to  us. 
This  is  the  one  matter  which  Jesus  himself 
expressly  said  (Matthew  24:36)  he  did  not  know, 
declaring  it  was  known  only  to  the  Father;  yet 
time  and  again  there  have  been  those  who  have 
presumed  to  fix  this  day  down  to  the  very  hour. 


224         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

From  the  earliest  Christian  times  there  has  been  a 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  whether  this  event  may 
be  always  imminent,  or  whether  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  to  take  a  long  time  for  its  establishment 
in  the  world.  The  first  view  builds  on  those  pas- 
sages that  represent  the  day  of  the  Lord  as  near 
at  hand  and  warn  us  to  watch;  and  the  other  view 
is  based  on  passages  that  imply  a  long  period  dur- 
ing which  the  Gospel  is  to  spread  through  the 
world.  The  former  view  is  generally  connected 
with  the  premillenarian  theory  that  the  world  is  to 
grow  worse  rather  than  better  until  Christ  appears 
at  his  second  coming  and  establishes  the  millen- 
nium and  reigns  in  person  in  the  world  for  a 
thousand  years;  after  which  comes  the  general 
judgment.  The  postmillenarian  theory  takes  the 
view  that  the  Gospel  is  slowly  to  pervade  and 
transform  the  world  into  the  millennium,  at  the 
close  of  which  Christ  is  to  come  in  the  general 
judgment.  There  always  have  been  able  scholars 
holding  the  premillenarian  view,  but  the  postmil- 
lenarian theory  has  been  and  is  more  generally 
held.  There  is  much  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  con- 
cerning his  kingdom  that  implies  slow  processes 
and  a  long  time.  The  parables  of  the  good  seed 
growing  together  with  the  tares  until  the  final 
harvest,  and  of  the  leaven  that  is  to  leaven  the 


LAST  THINGS  225 

whole  mass,  are  especially  strong  in  this  implica- 
tion, and  Jesus  sent  forth  his  disciples  "to  teach 
all  nations,  baptizing  them,. .  .and  teaching  them  to 
observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you."  This  is  a  large  program  which  has  as  yet 
only  been  begun,  and  it  looks  through  many  cen- 
turies for  its  fulfilment.  This  earth  has  already 
been  a  long  time  the  scene  of  human  development, 
and  it  is  stocked  and  equipped  with  means  for 
vast  time  and  progress  yet.  It  appears  to  be  still 
young,  humanity  is  yet  in  the  morning  of  its  life, 
and  the  future  is  rosy  with  the  splendid  vision  of 
a  universal  kingdom  of  God  among  men. 

III.  When  we  try  to  discern  the  order  and 
meaning  of  future  events  as  portrayed  in  Scripture, 
we  are  often  in  doubt  as  to  their  real  place,  time 
and  significance.  Sometimes  a  gorgeous  mass  of 
colors  is  thrown  upon  the  far  horizon  in  which 
are  vague  shapes  and  movements,  and  earth  and 
heaven  meet  and  interblend  so  that  it  is  difficult  to 
tell  what  pertains  to  this  world  and  what  to 
the  next.  But  there  are  some  mountain  peaks 
that  stand  out  distinctly.  One  of  these  is  the 
second  coming  of  Christ.  He  repeatedly  predicted 
this  event  himself  with  positiveness,  and  it  fills  a 
large  place  in  the  New  Testament.  "For  the  Son 
of  man  shall  come  in  the  glory  of  his  Father,  with 
15 


226         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

his  angels,  and  then  shall  he  reward  every  man 
according  to  his  works.  Verily  I  say  unto  you. 
There  be  some  standing  here,  which  shall  not  taste 
of  death,  till  they  see  the  Son  of  man  coming  in 
his  kingdom"  (Matthew  16:27-28).  As  we  have 
seen,  the  time  of  his  coming  is  unknown  to  us, 
and  there  is  also  difficulty  in  joining  together  the 
various  statements  concerning  it.  Sometimes  the 
coming  evidently  refers  to  the  end  of  the  world, 
and  then  again  it  relates  to  intermediate  events. 
When  Jesus  told  his  hearers  that  some  of  them 
would  not  taste  death  until  they  would  see  the 
Son  of  man  coming  in  his  kingdom,  he  must  have 
referred  to  an  event  in  their  day  and  generation. 
The  great  eschatological  discourse  recorded  in  the 
twenty-fourth  chapter  of  Matthew  refers  mostly 
to  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  though  it  also  glances  on 
to  the  final  end.  This  principle  of  interpretation 
can  be  applied  to  many  of  these  passages.  Christ 
is  coming  in  a  partial  way  in  many  of  the  critical 
events  of  the  world  and  kingdom,  and  in  this  sense 
he  comes  to  the  believer  in  death.  But  all  of  these 
partial  comings  prepare  the  way  for  and  will  cul- 
minate in  his  final  coming  in  which  he  will  appear 
"in  the  glory  of  his  Father,  with  his  angels."  In 
this  sense  the  coming  of  Christ  is  always  imminent 
to  the  believer,  and  we  know  not  the  day.    "There- 


LAST  THINGS  22/ 

fore  be  ye  also  ready:  for  in  such  an  hour  as  ye 
think  not,  the  Son  of  man  cometh." 

IV.  The  final  coming  of  Christ  will  be  attended 
with  two  events  of  overshadowing  importance. 
The  first  of  these  will  be  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead.  The  human  spirit  in  this  life  weaves  around 
itself  a  mesh  of  material  threads  that  constitutes 
its  earthly  body,  which  is  a  medium  and  instru- 
ment adapted  to  its  life  in  this  world.  The  resur- 
rection means  that  it  will  have  another  body 
adapted  to  the  other  world.  The  nature  of  this  body 
is  necessarily  unknown  to  us  and  possibly  is  incon- 
ceivable by  us,  for  it  pertains  to  a  mode  of  existence 
beyond  our  experience.  Paul  throws  light  upon 
the  subject  in  his  First  Epistle  to  the  Gjrinthians 
(15:35-58).  The  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  was 
especially  absurd  and  offensive  to  the  Greeks,  and 
Paul  removes  some  of  the  misconceptions  which 
were  attached  to  the  idea  in  that  day  and  still 
adhere  to  it  in  some  minds  in  our  day.  He  shows 
that  it  is  not  the  same  material  body  which  is  put 
into  the  ground  that  is  to  be  raised  up  in  the  resur- 
rection, but  that  the  connection  between  the  old 
body  and  the  new  is  after  the  manner  of  the 
relation  of  the  seed  to  the  flower.  It  is  sown  a 
natural  body,  or  a  body  adapted  to  this  natural 
world;  and  it  is  raised  a  spiritual  body,  or  a  body 


228         THE   BASAL   BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

adapted  to  the  spiritual  world.  As  we  have  senses 
and  organs  by  which  we  are  exquisitely  adjusted 
to  the  conditions  and  needs  of  our  earthly  life, 
so  shall  we  have  organs  that  will  perfectly  fit  and 
apprehend  the  glories  of  the  heavenly  life.  Christ 
after  his  resurrection  appears  to  have  been  clothed 
in  this  spiritual  body,  as  it  was  apparently  not 
subject  to  the  ordinary  laws  of  matter.  We  can- 
not see  behind  this  veil,  and  must  await  the  event, 
but  faith  assures  us  that  we  shall  be  clothed  upon 
with  a  garment  whose  glory  will  surpass  all  we 
can  know  or  dream. 

V.  The  other  critical  event  attending  the  second 
coming  of  Christ  will  be  the  general  judgment. 
This  is  pictured  in  the  Scriptures  as  a  great  assize, 
or  bar,  before  which  men  will  appear  to  be  judged 
according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.  Of 
course  there  is  much  in  such  descriptions  that  is 
necessarily  the  pictorial  drapery  of  the  scene,  but 
the  essential  reality  is  plain.  It  is  a  primary  fact 
of  our  human  constitution  that  we  are  subject  to 
judgment,  and  the  whole  meaning  and  worth  of 
life  are  expressed  in  this  fact.  Conscience  is  a 
bar  set  up  in  every  soul,  and  judgment  is  written 
vividly  over  all  the  affairs  of  this  world.  In  fact, 
"every  day,"  as  Ruskin  says,  "is  a  day  of  judg- 
ment   and    irrevocably    writes    its    verdict    in    the 


LAST  THINGS  229 

flames  of  the  West."  But  all  earthly  judgment  is 
imperfect,  partial  and  preparatory  to  the  great  day 
when  "the  books  shall  be  opened."  and  "every  one 
of  us  shall  give  account  of  himself  unto  God," 
"who  will  render  unto  every  man  according  to  his 
deeds."  Christ  gives  a  great  picture  of  the  judg- 
ment (Matthew  25:31-46)  in  which  the  King  sends 
men  to  the  right  hand  of  reward,  or  to  the  left  hand 
of  retribution,  according  to  their  deeds,  and  some  of 
these  deeds  appear  trivial,  such  as  the  giving  or 
the  refusing  of  a  cup  of  cold  water  to  a  stranger. 
We  may  be  surprised  at  the  emphasis  the  Scrip- 
tures place  upon  deeds  in  the  last  judgment,  and 
ask  where  the  grace  of  God  in  salvation  through 
Christ  comes  in.  But  deeds  are  outer  manifestation 
and  evidence  of  inner  faith  and  motive;  they  show 
what  is  really  in  the  heart  as  blossoms  and  fruit 
show  the  nature  of  the  tree.  We  are  saved  by 
grace  through  faith,  but  faith  is  genuine  only  as 
it  becomes  fact.  The  final  judgment  is  thus  based 
on  righteous  awards.  Its  decisions  rest  on  no  arbi- 
trary grounds  or  secret  decrees,  but  upon  the  deeds 
which  every  one  has  done  himself  and  which  are 
thus  the  expression  of  his  own  character  and  will. 
In  the  final  result  every  one  thus  eats  of  the  fruit 
of  his  own  doing,  and  no  soul  can  find  fault  with 
the  evidence  and  verdict. 


230         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

VI.  Judgment  is  followed  by  division  and 
separation  of  the  righteous  from  the  wicked,  and 
then  each  company  go  to  their  own  place.  The 
general  and  explicit  teachings  of  Scripture  repre- 
sent these  rewards  and  retributions  as  final.  "He 
that  is  unjust,  let  him  be  unjust  still:  and  he  which 
is  filthy,  let  him  be  filthy  still:  and  he  that  is 
righteous,  let  him  be  righteous  still:  and  he  that 
is  holy,  let  him  be  holy  still."  The  principle  of 
this  verdict  is  that  the  same  spiritual  laws  that 
rule  in  this  world  run  through  and  rule  in  the  other 
world.  Character  tends  towards  fixity  and  final- 
ity. Righteousness  propagates  itself  and  crystal- 
lizes into  eternal  life,  and  sin  is  not  self-curative 
but  sinks  into  eternal  death.  However  painfully 
this  mystery  may  press  upon  our  hearts,  we  cannot 
change  the  laws  of  character,  or  turn  life  into  any- 
thing else  than  a  tremendous  trial  that  may  become 
a  terrible  tragedy.  God  bears  the  burden  of  this 
problem,  and  we  must  leave  its  solution  with  him. 
The  Scriptural  teaching  is  that  the  saved  will  be  a 
great  multitude,  whom  no  man  can  number,  and  the 
intimation  is  that  the  lost  may  be  few.  At  any  rate, 
the  door  of  grace  and  opportunity  is  now  open  be- 
fore us,  and  a  voice  is  ever  saying  unto  us,  "This 
is  the  way:  walk  ye  in  it."  God  through  Christ 
will  at  last  bring  all  things  into  subjection  to  him- 


LAST  THINGS  23 1 

self.  "Then  cometh  the  end,  when  he  shall  deliver 
up  the  kingdom  to  God,  even  the  Father;  when  he 
shall  have  abolished  all  rule  and  all  authority  and 
power.  For  he  must  reign,  till  he  hath  put  all  his 
enemies  under  his  feet.  The  last  enemy  that  shall 
be  abolished  is  death.  .  .  .  And  when  all  things 
shall  be  subdued  unto  him,  then  shall  the  Son  also 
himself  be  subjected  unto  him  that  did  subject  all 
things  unto  him,  that  God  may  be  all  in  alL" 


CHAPTER  XXX 


HEAVEN 


We  have  come  to  the  end  of  our  journey  along 
the  pathway  of  Christian  faith  and  conclude  with 
a  glimpse  of  its  final  consummation.  When  travel- 
ing towards  a  city  or  country  we  are  interested 
in  finding  out  all  we  can  about  it ;  and  if  it  is  to  be 
our  home  our  interest  grows  intense.  Heaven  is 
to  be  our  final  home,  and  our  earthly  life  is  a  pil- 
grimage towards  it.  We  are  therefore  eager  to 
get  any  bit  of  news  from  it  we  can,  and  look  wist- 
fully towards  its  gates  in  the  hope  that  they  may 
be  left  ajar  and  some  of  its  glory  may  stream 
through.  This  yearning  is  not  simply  idle  curi- 
osity, but  is  a  true  instinct,  and  it  has  not  been  left 
unsatisfied.  While  the  heavenly  life  lies  beyond 
our  experience  and  it  hath  not  entered  into  the 
the  heart  of  man  to  conceive  it,  yet  there  are  hints 
and  glimpses  of  it  in  the  Scriptures,  and  it  is  right 
that  we  should  cherish  these.  Our  personal  consti- 
tution, also,  is  some  guide  to  our  presentiments 
of  heaven.  As  from  the  structure  of  an  animal  the 
232 


HEAVEN  233 

naturalist  will  deduce  its  environment  and  describe 
its  whole  life,  so  from  the  nature  of  the  human 
soul  we  can  foretell  something  of  that  world  in 
which  it  will  realize  its  full  development.  The 
heavenly  life  will  be  this  life  raised  to  its  highest 
perfection  and  power. 

I.  Heaven  is  pictured  as  a  city  in  the  Scriptural 
visions  of  it,  and  this  word  contains  a  world  of 
suggestion.  A  city  is  human  life  crowded  to  its 
most  glorious  expression.  All  things  human  are 
there  raised  to  their  highest  degree.  It  is  a 
powerful  magnet  that  attracts  to  itself  the  ablest 
men  and  the  best  things.  Wealth  is  there  concen- 
trated in  a  rich  soil  that  blossoms  out  into  magnif- 
icent streets,  buildings,  parks,  and  works  of  art. 
It  is  the  scene  of  the  intensest  activities  of  men, 
where  they  fight  their  greatest  battles  and  win 
their  noblest  victories.  Human  character  there 
attains  its  fullest  and  richest  development  and 
shines  out  in  its  greatest  beauty.  Great  cities 
have  ever  been  the  centers  of  civilization,  the  seats 
of  commerce  and  education,  literature  and  art, 
government  and  power.  Rome  was  mistress  of 
the  ancient  world,  Athens  was  Greece,  and  Paris 
is  France.  It  is  true  that  human  sin  also  reaches 
its  greatest  intensity  in  the  city.  In  the  midst  of 
its   wealth   and   luxury   is   the   direst  poverty,   its 


234         THE   BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

palaces  stand  close  to  its  slums,  and  beneath  its 
splendid  robes  are  the  most  hideous  shapes  of  evil. 
Heaven  is  a  city  without  sin.  All  that  is  good  and 
glorious  in  the  earthly  city  is  there  realized  in  its 
ideal  perfection.  Its  vast  throngs  of  redeemed 
souls  are  organized  into  a  social  order  of  perfect 
harmony  and  beauty  and  blessedness;  and  its 
environment  consists  of  pearly  gates  and  golden 
streets  whose  splendor  surpasses  all  our  dreams. 
11.  As  to  the  nature  of  life  in  this  city  we  can 
only  indulge  in  general  speculations.  In  the  evolu- 
tion of  life  the  body  keeps  pace  with  the  develop- 
ment and  needs  of  the  soul,  and  therefore  the 
heavenly  body  will  correspond  with  the  glorified 
soul.  It  will  be  a  spiritual  body,  raised  in  incor- 
ruption,  power  and  glory.  It  may  be  endowed 
with  new  senses  through  which  life  will  pour  in 
upon  us  in  new  streams  of  knowledge  and  beauty. 
Our  senses  are  so  many  windows  opening  out  upon 
the  world,  and  our  present  bodies  are  transparent 
at  only  five  points;  but  the  spiritual  body  may  be 
transparent  through  and  through,  a  pure  crystal, 
through  which  we  can  look  out  upon  every  aspect 
of  the  world.  It  may  also  be  armed  with  unknown 
powers  by  which  we  can  pass  with  incredible 
swiftness  from  point  to  point  and  even  from 
world  to  world.     We  do  not  know  what  we  shall 


HEAVEN  235 

be,  but  we  may  well  believe  that  as  the  slow- 
crawling,  shaggy  caterpillar  is  to  the  swift-winged, 
gorgeously-arrayed  butterfly,  so  is  this  present 
"muddy  vesture  of  decay"  to  that  glorified  body 
with  which  we  shall  be  clothed  upon. 

III.  Passing  to  the  mind,  we  conceive  that  its 
essential  processes  of  thought,  perception,  memory, 
imagination  and  reasoning,  will  still  go  on,  but  with 
increased  power  and  under  more  favorable  con- 
ditions. Truth  no  doubt  can  be  gained  there  as 
here  only  through  study.  What  means  we  shall 
use,  what  teachers  and  schools  and  books  will  be 
available,  we  do  not  know;  but  in  the  very  nature 
of  finite  mind  these  processes  are  necessary.  With 
clarified  and  ever  expanding  mental  faculties,  with 
the  universe  for  our  field  and  eternity  for  our 
school  days,  how  shall  knowledge  grow  from  more 
to  more;  what  problems  we  shall  solve,  what 
mysteries  unlock,  what  grand  systems  construct, 
how  our  minds  and  hearts  will  glow  with  ever 
brighter  visions  of  truth  and  beauty!  Here  we 
have  but  hints  and  gleams  of  truth,  but  there  we 
shall  begin  to  know  what  mind  means  and  shall 
revel  in  its  power.  Yet  we  shall  never  reach  the 
utmost  bound  of  truth  where  only  omniscience 
dwells  in  light  unapproachable,  and  the  wider 
grows  our  knowledge  the  vaster  will  be  the  circle  of 


236         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

mystery  that  will  forever  shut  us  in  and  lure  us  on. 

IV.  Our  affectional  nature  will  come  to  its  full 
flower  in  heaven.  If  anything  in  us  is  immortal 
it  surely  is  affection.  Life  is  love  more  than  any- 
thing else,  and  if  this  bright  warm  strand  were 
pulled  out  of  our  redeemed  nature  it  would  be 
rifled  of  its  richness  and  left  colorless  and  cold. 
We  shall  there  be  social  beings,  knit  together  in 
service  and  companionship,  friendship  and  love. 
Memory  will  bind  us  together  in  heavenly  recog- 
nition of  earthly  ties.  The  same  currents  of  affection 
that  flow  through  our  lives  here  will  there  flow 
in  deeper  and  richer  streams.  Affection  will  be 
purified  from  passion  and  burn  in  ethereal  flames. 
It  will  be  universally  diffused  so  that  each  one  will 
love  all  and  all  will  love  each,  and  yet  it  will  glow 
intensely  in  personal  relations. 

V.  The  esthetic  nature  will  also  come  to  its 
finest  bloom  in  the  heavenly  life.  Beauty  is  eternal, 
for  it  has  its  fountain  and  essence  in  the  nature  of 
God.  As  he  has  made  this  world  so  beautiful, 
how  much  more  beautiful  will  be  the  higher  and 
more  perfect  world,  and  how  much  fuller  and  richer 
will  be  the  gratification  of  our  esthetic  faculties. 
All  the  Scriptural  descriptions  of  heaven  strain 
language  to  the  utmost  to  give  us  some  faint 
conception  of  its  ineffable  beauty.     Its  foundations 


HEAVEN  237 

are  precious  stones,  its  gates  are  pearls,  and  its 
streets  are  gold.  This  blossom-decked,  star-fretted 
world  is  but  a  hint  of  the  infinite  wealth  and  splen- 
dor of  beauty  that  will  array  that  world  in  all 
lovely  forms  and  colors.  And  of  course  there  is 
music  in  heaven.  John  heard  the  voice  of  harpers 
harping  with  their  harps,  and  they  sang  a  new 
song.  All  the  chords  and  songs  of  earth  are  but 
introductory  to  the  symphonies  of  those  golden 
strings.  All  life  will  there  express  itself  in  artistic 
forms:  all  truth  will  be  poetry,  all  scenes  pictures, 
and  all  sounds  music.  Every  one's  sense  of  beauty 
will  there  be  developed  and  given  full  expression 
and  be  satisfied. 

VI.  Our  moral  and  religious  nature  will  reach 
its  highest  development  and  employment  in  heaven. 
The  same  principles  of  truth,  honor,  justice,  gentle- 
ness, goodness  and  love  that  bind  us  here  will 
rule  us  there :  only  there  will  be  no  inner  resistance 
and  outer  opposition  to  obstruct  these  laws  and 
make  them  seem  harsh  restrictions  upon  our 
desires  and  freedom;  but  they  will  be  so  wrought 
into  us  that  they  will  be  our  own  spontaneous 
nature,  and  duty  and  desire  will  coincide  in  perfect 
and  joyous  liberty.  Worship  will  also  there  reach 
its  highest  expression  and  joy.  The  sense  of 
worship,  which  is  just  our  sense  of  worth,  will  be 


238         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

purified  and  deepened  through  our  whole  nature; 
there  we  shall  be  able  to  see  things  so  as  to  appre- 
ciate them  at  their  true  worth;  there  we  shall  be 
closer  to  God  and  dwell  in  his  light;  and  there  we 
shall  see  Jesus.  And  yet  there  will  be  no  formal 
ordinances  of  worship,  for  there  is  no  temple  in 
heaven.  Symbolic  shadows  have  vanished  and  only 
realities  remain.  All  life  there  is  religious,  all 
days  holy,  and  all  work  worship.  There  is  no 
temple  in  that  city  because  the  whole  city  is  one 
vast  temple. 

VII.  There  will  be  employments  in  heaven 
that  will  match  all  our  faculties.  We  are  essen- 
tially active  beings  and  never  could  be  anything 
else.  Our  employments  will  be  even  more  diver- 
sified in  heaven  than  they  are  on  earth.  We  shall 
there  still  have  gifts  differing,  and  every  one  will 
be  given  service  that  suits  and  satisfies  him.  What 
this  service  will  be  we  cannot  now  know,  but  it 
will  surely  be  useful  service,  and  doubtless  one 
form  of  it  will  consist  in  serving  one  another.  As 
civilization  becomes  more  complex  we  become  more 
and  more  dependent  upon  one  another.  This 
principle  doubtless  runs  on  up  into  heaven,  and 
there  we  may  be  dependent  on  one  another  as  we 
never  have  been  before.  God  will  have  abundance 
of  work  for  us  to  do.     "His  servants  shall  serve 


HEAVEN  239 

him."  What  forms  this  service  will  assume,  on 
what  missions  to  far-off  worlds  it  may  send  us, 
what  responsibilities  it  may  impose  and  rewards  it 
may  win,  we  cannot  know,  but  it  will  turn  all  life 
into  ministering  and  crown  and  glorify  it  with 
unselfishness  and  love;  and  all  work  and  worship, 
life  and  love  will  there  run  up  into  and  be  lost 
in  the  life  and  glory  of  God. 

It  may  be  asked,  where  comes  in  the  reward, 
the  rest,  the  joy  of  heaven,  if  life  there  is  all 
service?  The  rest  and  reward  consist  in  this 
service  itself.  The  rest  of  heaven  is  not  simply 
eternal  idleness.  Such  rest  would  soon  make  us 
tired.  The  sunbeam  that  seems  absolutely  still  and 
yet  is  incessantly  active  is  a  symbol  of  the  heavenly 
life.  The  activities  of  the  redeemed  are  attended 
with  no  friction  and  fatigue,  but  operate  with  per- 
fect smoothness  and  ease:  they  are  that  perfect 
work  that  is  also  perfect  play.  We  shall  rest  in 
heaven,  not  from  our  work,  but  in  our  work. 

Rest   is   not   quitting 

The  busy  career; 
Rest   is  the  fitting 

Of  self  to  one's  sphere. 

The  hignest  reward  of  service  is  always  higher 
service.  Joy  is  not  something  we  get  by  itself, 
but  it  is  just  the  music  that  floats  off  the  harp  of 


240         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS   OF   CHRISTIANITY 

life  when  it  is  in  perfect  tune  and  is  properly 
struck.  In  this  discordant  world  righteousness 
and  reward,  work  and  rest,  service  and  satisfaction 
often  get  separated,  but  in  that  perfect  world  they 
are  indissolubly  interblended,  and  there  all  joy  is 
service,  and  all  service  is  joy. 

VIII.  How  does  this  view  of  the  celestial  city 
help  our  earthly  life?  What  relation  have  the 
employments  here  to  the  employments  there? 
They  are  training  and  preparation.  The  boy  at 
school,  poring  over  books  and  wrestling  with 
hard  lessons,  is  gathering  knowledge,  forming 
habits  and  developing  power  for  coming  responsi- 
bilities and  service.  Though  he  knows  it  not, 
every  lesson  mastered  is  a  stone  built  into  the 
structure  of  future  years.  What  he  will  be  then 
depends  on  what  he  is  doing  now.  This  world  is 
a  school,  and  all  our  life  is  a  training  and  prepara- 
tion for  the  life  to  come.  Every  earthly  day  puts 
something  into  that  celestial  life,  weaves  a  strand 
into  the  garment  of  character  we  shall  there  wear, 
fits  us  for  some  service  that  shall  there  be  our 
employment.  This  thought  lifts  up  every  day  and 
deed  and  makes  it  big  with  destiny  and  trans- 
figures it  with  coming  glory.  Even  the  hardships 
and  losses,  the  disappointments  and  discourage- 
ments, the  suflferings  and  sorrows  of  this  world  are 


HEAVEN  241 

working  for  us  and  shall  be  caught  up  into  that 
song. 

One  summer  evening  a  little  company  of  us 
were  descending  a  steep  mountain  road  from  the 
Wetterhorn  in  the  Alps,  when  suddenly  music 
came  floating  around  us  from  some  unseen  source. 
It  was  pure  impersonal  music,  so  distilled  that 
no  sediment  of  mere  sound  was  left  to  blur  the 
exquisite  harmony.  It  was  clearer  than  any  piano 
note,  finer  than  any  strain  of  violin,  more  resonant 
than  any  peal  of  bells,  richer  than  any  organ  swell, 
sweeter  than  any  human  voice.  We  listened  to 
hear  whence  it  came.  The  mountain  of  rock  rose 
above  us  half  a  mile  high  and  at  the  top  was 
splintered  into  crags.  The  music  came  from  that 
mighty  wall  of  stone.  The  whole  mountain 
seemed  full  of  it,  pulsing  and  throbbing  with  its 
burden  of  song.  Again  and  again  it  pealed  forth 
like  a  mighty  cathedral  bell  the  volume  of  harmony, 
so  full,  so  grandly  sweet,  so  all-encompassing  that 
the  atmosphere  for  miles  around  seemed  pregnant 
with  the  glory.  The  notes  swept  up  the  moun- 
tain side  from  ledge  to  ledge,  leaping  and  ringing 
out  clearer  and  finer  from  the  higher  crags; 
lingering  in  silvery  echoes  among  the  loftiest 
peaks;  fading  into  enchanting  whispers  and  dying 
away  in  solemn  silence.  What  did  it  mean?  Far- 
16 


242         THE  BASAL  BELIEFS  OF   CHRISTIANITY 

ther  down  the  road  we  came  upon  a  mountaineer 
with  his  Alpine  horn,  a  big  wooden  instrument, 
ten  feet  long,  the  flaring  end  of  which  fitted  into  a 
box  that  opened  out  like  a  hopper.  He  blew  a 
blast  for  us,  but  it  was  only  a  loud  raucous  noise 
that  was  far  from  pleasing  to  the  ear.  Yet  it  was 
that  rude  horn,  blown  by  that  rough  mountaineer 
far  down  in  the  valley,  that  was  making  that 
celestial  music  up  among  the  summits  of  the  Alps. 
The  majestic  mountain  with  its  heart  full  of  melody 
gathered  up  those  rough  sounds  and  transformed 
and  transfigured  them  into  harmonies  so  divine. 
So  may  the  life  on  earth  be  transfigured  into  the 
life  in  heaven.  The  instruments  on  which  we  play 
may  be  rude  and  clumsy,  the  sounds  we  make 
may  often  seem  rasping  and  discordant,  we  may 
be  shut  in  far  down  the  valley,  all  the  conditions 
of  our  life  may  seem  narrow  and  its  service  hard, 
but  when  these  experiences  are  caught  up  into  the 
celestial  world  they  may  be  transformed  into  such 
music  as  will  make  our  heaven  forever.  This 
hope  makes  life  worth  living  and  glorifies  every 
common  deed.  Even  now  we  may  begin  to  weave 
these  notes  of  Christian  character  and  service  into 
triumphant  chords  and  songs  that  will  make  all 
our  days  a  chorus  of  joy.  Already  the  strings  of 
life  may  begin  to  tremble  and  swell  with  celestial 


HEAVEN  243 

Strains.  Let  us  be  faithful  down  in  the  valley,  and 
at  last  up  on  the  mountain  summit  we  shall  touch 
the  golden  harp  of  perfect  character  and  join  in 
the  song  of  eternal  joy. 


Father  of  our  spirits,  and  Father  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  we  thank  Thee  for  the  gift  of  life 
with  all  its  powers  and  possibilities ;  for  the  revelation 
Thou  hast  made  of  Thyself  through  the  great  bible  of  the 
natural  world,  through  the  inner  world  of  reason  and  con- 
science, through  the  inspired  Word,  and  especially  through 
Thy  Son,  the  express  image  of  Thy  person  and  the  bright- 
ness of  Thy  glory;  for  redemption  from  our  sin  through 
Thy  grace;  and  for  life  more  abundant,  blessed  and  beau- 
tiful through  faith  in  and  fellowship  with  Thee  in  Jesus 
Christ.  Open  our  eyes  and  show  us  these  things  in  their 
wondrous  truth  and  power.  May  we  see  them  more  clearly 
in  our  minds,  feel  them  more  deeply  in  our  hearts,  and 
work  them  out  more  fruitfully  in  our  lives.  Dwell  in  our 
hearts  by  faith  and  inspire  us  with  humble  trust,  masterful 
zeal  and  joyous  hope.  May  all  our  life  be  environed  with 
Thy  presence  and  saturated  with  Thy  Spirit.  May  we  love 
our  fellowmen  and  pour  out  our  lives  in  service  and 
sacrifice.  Through  all  our  temptations,  trials  and  tears, 
keep  us  in  Thy  love ;  and  at  last  bring  us  home  to  Thyself 
'  that  we  may  dwell  with  Thee  forever.  We  ask  in  Jesus' 
name.    Amen. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

As  this  little  book  may  lead  some  of  its  readers 
to  desire  to  pursue  the  subject  further,  a  few  books 
are  here  recommended  out  of  the  vast  literature  of 
this  field. 

(i)  Christianity:  Its  Nature  and  Its  Truth,  by 
Arthur  S.  Peake,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Biblical 
Exegesis  in  the  University  of  Manchester  (New 
York:  Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Company,  $1.25  net), 
is  an  admirable  exposition  and  defense  of  the  main 
facts  and  doctrines  of  Christian  faith.  It  is  in- 
formed by  sound  scholarship  and  is  clear  in  its 
style  and  convincing  in  its  logic. 

(2)  The  Grounds  of  Theistic  and  Christian  Be- 
lief, by  the  late  Professor  George  Park  Fisher, 
D.D.,  of  Yale  University  (New  York:  Charles 
Scribner's  Sons,  $2.50),  is  probably  the  best  volume 
in  English  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity.  It 
first  appeared  in  1883,  but  in  1902  it  was  mostly 
rewritten  and  enlarged,  and  is  an  up  to  date  work. 
It  is  founded  on  ample  scholarship  and  gives  a  full 
and  thorough  discussion  of  the  main  points  of  theism 
and  Christianity.  It  is  characterized  by  singular 
244 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL    NOTE  245 

fairness  and  candor,  is  engaging  in  its  style  and 
greatly  fortifies  the  believer  in  his  faith,  and  yet 
must  win  the  respect,  if  not  the  belief,  of  the 
doubter. 

(3)  Works  on  the  atonement  are  specially 
numerous  and  are  often  difficult  to  understand  or 
unsatisfactory  in  their  theories.  A  little  book  of 
special  value  for  the  lay  reader  is  Lessons  from  the 
Cross,  by  Charles  Brown,  an  English  Baptist  min- 
ister, and  published  in  this  country  by  the  Fleming 
H.  Revell  Company  (50  cents).  It  consists  of 
eight  brief  chapters,  but  they  are  wonderfully  clear 
and  convincing  as  they  lead  the  reader  along  on 
the  grounds  of  Scripture  and  reason  from  simpler 
to  deeper  views  of  the  Cross. 

(4)  One  of  the  notable  books  of  recent  theology 
is  An  Outline  of  Christian  Theology,  by  William 
Newton  Clarke,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Christian 
Theology  in  Colgate  University  (New  York: 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  $2.50).  The  distinguish- 
ing note  of  this  book  is  reality.  It  carries  into  the 
mind  of  the  reader  the  conviction  that  the  author  is 
intent  only  on  getting  at  the  truth  and  that  he  is 
reaching  it.  It  is  remarkably  clear  and  simple  in 
its  reasoning,  and  it  is  pervaded  with  a  devotional 
flavor  that  is  quite  unusual  in  such  works  and  feeds 
the  reader's  heart  as  well  as  instructs  his  mind.     The 


246        THE    BASAL    BELIEFS    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

lay  reader  will  have  no  difficulty  in  understanding 
and  appreciating  Dr.  Clarke's  work. 

(5)  A  larger  work  but  one  still  within  the  grasp 
of  the  lay  reader  is  the  recently  completed  System- 
atic Theology  of  Augustus  Hopkins  Strong,  D.D., 
President  of  the  (Baptist)  Rochester  Theological 
Seminary  (Philadelphia:  The  Griffith  &  Rowland 
Press.  Three  volumes,  $7.50).  The  author  de- 
notes his  work  "A  Compendium  and  Commonplace- 
Book,"  and  this  accurately  describes  it.  The  main 
text  consists  of  brief  paragraphs  in  large  type, 
which  is  then  explained  by  paragraphs  in  smaller 
type  in  which  are  fuller  elucidations  and  numerous 
brief  quotations  from  authors  of  various  schools  of 
thought.  It  is  a  mine  of  information  on  all  the 
leading  theories  of  all  the  facts  and  doctrines  of 
Christianity,  and  is  invaluable  in  this  respect.  While 
it  is  a  learned  book  and  displays  enormous  reading 
and  scholarship,  yet  the  layman  or  student  who 
wants  to  go  thoroughly  into  theology  will  find  this 
work  helpful  as  a  handbook  of  the  whole  subject. 

(6)  It  may  be  well  to  name  one  book  of  phil- 
osophical depth  and  power :  The  Philosophy  of  the 
Christian  Religion,  by  Andrew  Martin  Fairbairn, 
D.D.,  Principal  of  Mansfield  College,  Oxford,  Eng- 
land (New  York:  The  Mpcmillan  Company,  $3.50). 
This  profound  work  deals  with  the  deepest  problems 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL   NOTE  247 

of  religion  and  theology  with  masterly  grasp  and 
power,  and  it  is  written  in  stately  eloquence.  While 
it  is  addressed  to  scholars  and  thinkers,  yet  a  lay- 
man of  general  education  will  find  it  illuminating 
and  inspiring.  Another  work  of  great  value  by 
Dr.  Fairbairn  is  The  Place  of  Christ  in  Modern 
Theology  (New  York:  Charles  Scribner's  Sons. 
$2.50).  It  traces  the  development  of  Christian 
doctrine  and  polity  through  the  Christian  centuries 
and  shows  how  they  adopted  and  adapted  various 
elements  of  Greek  and  Roman  and  then  of  medieval 
and  modern  thought  and  life,  and  branched  out 
into  existing  creeds  and  churches.  It  gives  us  a 
swift  review  of  the  evolution  of  Christianity  and 
shows  us  how  we  came  to  be  what  we  are. 


INDEX 


Agnosticism,  i. 

Arnold,    Dr.    Thomas,   on   resar- 

rection   of  Christ,   142-143. 
Atonement,    the,    see    Cross    of 

Christ. 

Baptism,   200. 

Baur,  Ferdinand  Christian,  his 
"tendency  theory"  of  the  New 
Testament,     160- 161. 

Bible,  source  of  knowledge  of 
God,  5;  as  a  revelation  of  the 
character  of  God,  24-25;  as  a 
human  book,  59-61;  as  a 
growth,  61-62;  to  be  studied, 
61-64;  results  of  criticism  of, 
64-65;    a  divine  book,   65-66. 

Brown,  Charles,  his  book  on  the 
atonement,  245. 

Browning,    Robert,    quoted,   217. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  as  a  defender 
of  Christian   faith,    163. 

Character  of  Christ,  compacted 
of  all  virtues,  86-87;  its 
symmetry,  87-88;  its  comple- 
mentary virtues,  88-91;  its 
universality,  91-92;  its  central 
principle,    93-94- 

Church,  the,  191-202;  Jesus 
founded  it,  191-192;  its  de- 
velopment, 193-194;  how 
offices  arose  in,  194-195;  rise 
of  church  government,  196- 
197;  church  unity,  197-198; 
creeds  in,  198-200;  ordinances 
in,  200-201;  end  of  is  service, 

201-202. 

Clarke,  W.   N.,  on  love  as  cen- 


tral in  God,  27;  on  the  atone- 
ment, 124;  his  work  on  the- 
ology, 245-246. 

Clough,  Arthur  Hugh,  quoted, 
137- 

Consciousness  of  Christ,  trans- 
cended nature,  95-96;  man, 
96-97;  sin,  97-§8;  humanity, 
98;  space  ani  time,  98-99; 
one  with  God,   99-100. 

Creeds,  how  they  arose,  198; 
necessity  of,    199. 

Cross  of  Christ,  11 5-124;  sum- 
mit of  redemption,  115; 
Christ  died  as  our  example, 
116-117;  to  show  us  the  love 
of  God,  117-118;  as  a  vicarious 
sacrifice,  118- 120;  its  substi- 
tutionary element,  120-122; 
Christ  died  as  our  Head  and 
Representative,  122-123;  it 
satisfies  God,  123-124;  its 
eternal  aspect,   125. 

Dale,  R.  W.,  on  Christ  and  the 

Gospel,    113. 
Dante,     his    Divine    Comedy    a 

tribute  to   Christ,   153. 
Dualism,  35-36. 

Emerson,  on  universality  of  tin, 
50, 

Experience,  source  of  knowl- 
edge of  God,  6-7. 

Faith,    its    nature,    176-177;    in 

salvation    and    life,    181-182. 
Fairbairn,    A.    M.,    on    church 


249 


250 


INDEX 


polity,  196;  on  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  205-206;  his  works, 
246-247. 

Fichte,  Johann,  his  testimony 
as  to  Christ,  165. 

Fisher,  George  Park,  his  work 
on  the  evidences  of  Christian- 
ity, 244-245. 

Gibbon,  Lis  explanation  of  the 
spread  of  Christianity,  158-159. 

Goethe,  on  the  universality  of 
sin,    50. 

God,  sources  of  knowledge  of, 
1-7;  proofs  of  his  existence, 
8-15;  personality  of,  16-21; 
character  of,  22-27;  father- 
hood and  sovereignty  of,  28- 
33;  relation  of  to  the  world, 
34-39;    fatherhood   of,  44-45. 

Harris,  Samuel,  on  nature  of 
sin,  48. 

Heaven,  232-243;  pictured  as  a 
city,  233-234;  the  spiritual 
body  in,  235;  the  development 
of  the  mind  in,  235-236;  of 
our  affectional  nature,  236 ;  of 
the  esthetic  nature,  236-237; 
of  the  moral  and  religious 
nature,  237-238;  employments 
in,  238-239;  rewards  in,  239- 
240;  relation  of  to  our  earthly 
life,   240-243. 

Hell,   see  Judgment. 

Holy  Spirit,  the,  167-174;  the 
divine  agent  in  creation,  167- 
168;  in  our  human  world, 
168-170;  in  moral  and  spirit- 
ual life,  170;  in  the  church, 
171-172;  in  the  individual  in 
regeneration,  repentance  and 
faith,   172-174. 

Huxley,  Thomas  H.,  on  uni- 
versality of  sin,  50;  on  virgin 
birth,    127. 

Idealism,  36-38. 


Immortality,  212-221;  its  initial 
difficulty,  212-214;  eternal 
value  of  the  soul,  214-215; 
the  witness  of  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  soul,  215-217;  in- 
completeness of  this  world, 
217-218;  fatherhood  of  God  a 
ground  of,  218-219;  the  wit- 
ness of  great  souls,  219-220; 
of   Christ,   220-221. 

Incarnation,  need  of,  53-58; 
theism  contains  seeds  of,  54-58. 

Inspiration,   65-66. 

Jesus  Christ,  source  of  knowl- 
edge of  God,  6;  as  revelation 
of  the  character  of  God,  25- 
26;  the  person  of,  73-79; 
humanity  of,  73-75;  divinity 
of,  75-76;  problem  of  his  two 
natures,  76-78;  fitted  for  his 
work,  78-79;  his  sinlessness, 
80-84;  character  of,  86-94; 
transcendent  consciousness  of, 
95-100;  ministry  of,  101-107; 
baptism  of,  101-103;  tempta- 
tion of,  103-104;  teaching  of, 
108-114;  the  cross  of,  115- 
124;  virgin  birth  of,  126-132; 
resurrection  of,  133-143;  in 
history,  144-155;  regarded  as 
always  in  the  world,  144-145; 
his  Gospel  introduced  into  the 
world  at  a  trying  time,  145- 
147;  creator  in  every  field  of 
civilization,  147-148;  in  the 
political  world,  149;  in  the 
moral  and  social  world,  151; 
in  science  and  art,  152-153; 
in  redemption,  153-155;  in- 
adequate explanations  of,  156- 
166;  of  hostile  contempora- 
ries, 156-158;  of  Gibbon,  158- 
159;  of  Strauss,  159-160;  of 
Baur,  160-161;  of  Renan,  161- 
162;  fallacy  of  these  theories, 
162-163;  the  modern  Unitarian 
view   of,    163-164;    remarkable 


INDEX 


251 


testimonies  of  modern  unbe- 
lievers,   164-166. 

Judgment,  the  General,  228-229; 
final  separation  of  the  right- 
eous and  the  wicked,  230-231. 

Judaism,  inadequate  as  a  relig- 
ion,  S3. 

Kant,  Immanuel,  his  testimony 
as  to  Christ,   165. 

Kingdom    of    God,   203-211;    de- 
fined,   203;    includes    the    uni- 
verse, 203-204;   God's  reign  in 
hearts    of    believers,    204-205 
teaching  of  Jesus   as   to,   205 
206;    its    spirituality,    206-207 
relation  of  to  the  church,  207 
208;    its   call   to    service,  209 
the  future  of,  210-21 1. 

Last  things,  222-231;  the  end 
should  shape  the  present,  222; 
time  of  the  end  unknown  to 
us,  223 ;  the  premillenarian 
and  postmillenarian  theories, 
224-225;  the  second  coming 
of  Christ,  225-227;  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead,  227-228 ; 
the  general  judgment,  228- 
229;    its    finality,   230-231. 

Life,  the  Christian,  181-190;  and 
faith,  181-182;  and  prayer, 
182-184;  feeds  on  truth,  184- 
185;  ripens  in  meditation,  185- 
186;  highly  social,  186-188; 
one  of  fellowship,  188-189;  of 
service,    189-190. 

Prayer,    nature    of,    182-184. 

Lord's    Supper,    the,    200-201. 

Lotze,  on  personality  of  God, 
19. 

Man,  source  of  knowledge  of 
God,  4;  as  proof  of  existence 
of  God,  12-13;  bears  image 
of  God,  40-41 ;  method  of  his 
creation,  41-42;  original  con- 
dition of,  43. 


Michelangelo,  his  Moses  a  trib- 
ute to  Christ,   153. 

Ministry  of  Christ,  101-107; 
preparation  for,  101;  his  bap- 
tism, 101-102;  temptation  of, 
103-104;  his  miracles,  104-105; 
his  chief  work,  105-106;  train- 
ing  disciples,    106-107. 

Miracles,  relation  to  natural  law, 
67-69;  need  of,  69-70;  Bibli- 
cal miracles  are  rational,  70- 
71;  vital  to  Christianity,  71- 
72;  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  104- 
105;  virgin  birth,  126-132; 
resurrection  of  Christ,  133- 
143- 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  on  Jesus  as 
the    ideal  Man,   84. 

Monotheism,  inadequate  as  a  re- 
ligion,  53-54- 

Mohammedanism,  inadequate  as 
a  religion,  52. 

Muller,  Max,  relation  of  thought 
to  speech,   183. 

Nature,  source  of  knowledge  of 
God,  2-3;  as  proof  of  existence 
of  God,   11-12. 

Ordinances,  need  and  nature  of, 
200-201. 

Pantheism,  16. 

Paul,  his  testimony  to  the 
resurrection  of  Christ,  137- 
139;  his  teaching  as  to  union 
with   Christ,    175-176. 

Paulsen,  Friedrich,  on  Chris- 
tianity as  the  religion  of 
mercy,  94. 

Peabody,  Francis  G.,  his  con- 
tributions to  Christian  litera- 
ture,   163-164. 

Peake,  Arthur  S.,  his  book  on 
Christianity,   244. 

Postmillenarianism,    225. 

Premillenarianism,  225. 


252 


INDEX 


Raphael,  his  Transfiguration  a 
tribute  to  Christ,  153. 

Regeneration,    173. 

Renan,  on  genial  nature  of 
Jesus,  94;  his  "legendary  the- 
ory" of  Christ,  161-162;  his 
testimony  as   to   Christ,   166. 

Repentance,    177-178. 

Richter,  Jean  Paul,  his  dream 
of  a  world  without  God,  13- 
15;  his  testimony  as  to  Christ, 
i6s. 

Resurrection  of  the  dead,  227- 
228;  nature  of  the  resurrec- 
tion body,  228. 

Resurrection  of  Christ,  133-143; 
forced  into  the  light  at  its 
occurrence,  133-134;  Scrip- 
ture evidence  for,  134-136; 
the  witnesses  not  expecting  it, 
136-137;  the  testimony  of 
Paul,  137-139;  the  witnesses 
acted  out  their  belief,  139- 
140;  fits  the  lock  of  divine 
purpose,  140-141;  history 
matches  it,  141-142;  Dr. 
Thomas  Arnold's  testimony, 
142-I43- 

Rousseau,  his  testimony  as  to 
Christ,    165. 

Ruskin,  quoted,  228. 

Salvation,  175-180;  union  with 
God,  175-176;  effected  by 
faith,  176-177;  and  repentance, 
177-178;  secures  atonement 
through  faith,  178-179;  rela- 
tion to  remaining  sin,  179- 
180. 

Second  coming  of  Christ,  225- 
227. 

Sin,  46-52;  orig^in  of,  46-47; 
nature  of,  47-49;  heredity  of, 
49-50;  universality  of,  50-51; 
deserts  of,  51;  curable,  51- 
52;  its  atonement,  115-125; 
salvation    from,    175-180. 

Sinlessness     of     Christ,     80-85; 


proved  by  the  impression  he 
makes  on  us,  80-81 ;  by  the 
impression  he  made  on  his 
friends,  81-82;  on  his  enemies, 
82-84;  his  own  consciousness 
of,  84-85;  a  moral  miracle,  85. 

Soul,  human,  origin  of,  38-39; 
immortality   of,   212-221. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  his  agnosti- 
cism,  1-2. 

Strauss,  David  Friedrich,  on 
the  sinlessness  of  Jesus,  83; 
his  "mythical  theory"  of 
Christ,  159-160;  his  testi- 
mony as  to  Christ,   165. 

Strong,  Augustus  H.,  on  holi- 
ness as  central  in  God,  27; 
on  the  origin  of  man,  42;  his 
work  on  theology,  246. 

Teaching  of  Jesus,  108-114; 
manner  of,  108-109;  charac- 
teristics of,  109-110;  revealed 
God,  iio-iii;  and  man,  111- 
113;  converged  on  himself, 
113-114- 

Tennyson,  his  In  Metnoriam  a 
tribute  to  Christ,  153;  quoted, 
217. 

Theism,    17. 

Trinity,  doctrine  of,  20-21 ;  28-29. 

Unknowable    Power,    1-2. 

Unitarianism,  denies  the  Incar- 
nation, 54;  denies  miracles, 
7a;  an  inadequate  explanation 
of   Christ,    163-164. 

Unity   of  the    Church,   197-198. 

Virgin  Birth  of  Christ,  126-132; 
encounters  special  opposition, 
126-127;  Scriptural  evidence 
for,  127-128;  credibility  of  the 
narratives,  128-129;  silence 
of  the  Acts  and  Epistles,  130- 
131;  presence  in  the  narra- 
tives explicable  only  as  a  fact, 
131;  easy  to  believe  of  Christ, 
131-132. 


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By  the  Rev.  WALTER  RAUSCHENBUSCH 

Professor  of  Church  History  in  Rochtiter  Theological  Seminary 

Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis 

"  It  is  of  the  sort  to  make  its  readers  feel  that  the  book  was 
bravely  written  to  free  an  honest  man's  heart ;  that  conscientious 
scholarship,  hard  thinking,  and  the  determination  to  tell  the  truth 
as  he  sees  it,  have  wrought  it  out  and  enriched  it ;  that  it  is  written 
in  a  clear,  incisive  style  ;  that  stern  passion  and  gentle  sentiment 
stir  at  times  among  the  words,  and  keen  wit  and  grim  humor  flash 
here  and  there  in  the  turn  of  a  sentence  ;  and  that  there  is  a  noble 
end  in  view.  If  the  hope  be  too  confident,  if  there  be  once  in 
a  while  a  step  taken  beyond  the  line  of  justice  into  indignation,  if 
a  quaint  old  prejudice  or  even  animosity  bustles  to  the  front  in  an 
emergency  —  no  matter.  It  is  a  book  to  like,  to  learn  from,  and, 
though  the  theme  be  sad  and  serious,  to  be  charmed  with."  — 
New  York  Times^  Saturday  Review  of  Books. 

Cloth,  j2mo,  $i.jo  net 

By  Dr.  SHAILER  MATHEWS 

Professor  of  Historical  and  Comparative  Theology  in  the 
University  of  Chicago 

The  Gospel  and  the  Modern  Man 

"This  is  a  strong,  sane  book,  which  ought  to  be  widely  read. 
The  author  faces  the  difficulties  of  our  modern  situation  with  clear 
insight  and  perfect  frankness,  and  he  shows  with  literary  skill  and 
convincing  logic  that  while  some  old  notions  must  be  abandoned, 
the  essential  facts  and  forces  of  historical  Christianity  not  only 
remain  untouched  by  destructive  criticism,  but  issue  from  this 
searching  examination  with  increased  power  and  beauty."  —  The 
Dial. 

"  It  is  a  pleasure  to  find  such  lucidity,  temperance,  and  insight  as 
Professor  Mathews  has  shown  in  '  The  Gospel  and  Modern  Man.' 
He  introduces  his  incisive  question  at  once  and  proceeds  to  answer 
it.  .  .  .  It  may  easily  be  accounted  among  the  best  books 
America  has  produced  within  the  past  twelve-month  upon  the 
subject."  —  Christian  Advocate. 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $i.jo  net;  by  mail,  %jJbo 


PUBLISHED    BY 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

64-66  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York 


The  World  a  Spiritual  System 

An  Outline  of  Metaphysics 


By  JAMES  H.  SNOWDEN,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Formerly  Adjunct  Professor  of  Psychology  and  Ethics  in  Washing- 
ton and  Jefferson  College,  Editor  of  the  Presbyterian  Banner, 
Pittsburg. 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.50  net;  by  mail,  $1.61 

"  Dr.  Snowden  has  succeeded  in  giving  what  the  general  public  has 
long  been  wanting,  a  succinct  statement  of  the  dominant  system  of 
modem  Philosophy  of  ordinary  intelligence.  .  .  .  He  possesses  an 
unusually  clear  and  easy  style  which  has  enabled  him  to  make  the 
fundamentals  of  idealism  so  plain  the  reader  does  not  realize  the  depths 
into  which  he  is  peering.  Clear  water  does  not  seem  deep.  This  is  a 
book  which  every  preacher  not  already  schooled  in  philosophy,  and 
many  Christian  laymen,  ought  to  have.  The  old  dualism  is  now  with- 
out a  single  advocate  who  is  recognized  among  the  philosophers,  and 
the  same  may  be  said  of  the  old  materialism.  Over  against  agnosti- 
cism and  pantheism  it  is  ethical  idealism  that  is  saving  the  day  for 
Christian  theology,  and  every  preacher  at  least  ought  to  familiarize 
himself  with  its  essentials.  For  this  there  is  no  better  book  than  Dr. 
Snowden "s."  —  Presbyterian  Advance. 

"  Dr.  Snowden  outlines  the  view  of  the  world  as  held  by  the  plain  man, 
the  scientist,  and  the  metaphysician.  Then  he  enters  upon  chapter 
after  chapter  to  prove  the  subjectivity  of  sensation,  time,  and  space,  and 
what  is  the  limit  of  subjective  reality.  In  his  concluding  chapters  he 
applies  the  idealistic  philosophy  to  our  conceptions  of  the  world  and 
of  God.  Now  all  this  is  written  in  a  style  of  crystalline  clearness,  and 
the  arguments  are  cogent,  and  not  at  all  loaded  with  scholastic  subtlety 
or  mere  pedantic  learning.  Seldom  have  we  encountered  a  volume 
purporting  to  outline  so  important  a  branch  of  investigation,  where  the 
progressive  thought  marches  forward  as  steadily,  and  the  view  is  ex- 
plained so  clearly.  Most  men  are  forced  to  be  idealists,  for  beyond  the 
cold  facts  of  science  must  lie  a  greater  world  of  mind,  safe  from  invasion 
by  purely  scientific  processes."  —  Pittsburg  Post. 


PUBLISHED    BY 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

64-66  Fiftli  Avenue,  New  York 


^ 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


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